Homosexuality Quotes by Ian Mckellen

I was a shy gay man at a time when it was illegal to be gay.

— Ian Mckellen

I learned that coming out was crucial to self-esteem.

— Ian Mckellen

There have been many gay knights in the past - like Sir Noel Coward or Sir John Gielgud.

— Ian Mckellen

I'm dead against the idea that you should try to "cure" people of being gay.

— Ian Mckellen

There are deaths in public places on the grounds that the victim is gay.

— Ian Mckellen

Thanks to every gay person in public and non-public life who has come out.

— Ian Mckellen

Anyone in public life who comes out, comes out primarily for themselves, and their life is immediately improved. That's what happened to…

— Ian Mckellen

In the '50s and '60s, the life of a gay man was a secret. Homosexuality was illegal, so you didn't draw attention…

— Ian Mckellen

Personally, coming out was one of the most important things I've ever done, lifting from my shoulders the millstone of lies that…

— Ian Mckellen

I think it's one thing to declare your sexuality, if you care about what that is. It's another thing to start talking…

— Ian Mckellen

Imagine trying to be a gay actor, a gay anything in modern Russia? Where to be positively oneself, to be affectionate in…

— Ian Mckellen

There is a fantasy as old as the modern gay rights movement that if all our skins turned lavender overnight, the majority,…

— Ian Mckellen

When I went to lobby Nelson Mandela while the post-apartheid constitution was being drafted, I asked him to endorse making it illegal…

— Ian Mckellen