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The only thing I can give to young gay people is that when I was growing up, there were no role models that were blokey that were men. Everybody was flamboyant and camp, and I remember going, 'That's not me, so even though I think I am gay, I don't think I fit into this world.'

I didn't have any role models. I really thought I was doomed to this loveless, lonely life. I didn't know any gay people until I began doing theater.

I didn't know any gay people in my childhood.

I believe very firmly that gay people of every stripe and age should be role models for all children, and that means interacting with them.

I graduated from high school in '62 and I didn't know any people who were gay. I'm sure there were people, but I didn't know any. For years and years, I guess, I was very uptight about being a gay actor. I thought it would make me less hirable.

I think I was probably looking for gay role models when I was younger, before I even knew or thought I was gay. I didn't really make the connection that they were gay, but I felt drawn to them because they were going against the grain, and I knew there was something that they had that everybody else didn't have. It was an edge.

When I grew up, there were no songs about gay people.

In the past, it weighed on me because nobody in my family is gay. I had no role models so I had to find my own way.

The media has gone through lots of things that make it a less foreign thing to have your lead character be gay.

I had played many gay characters before, but they were finite - guest characters in TV shows or characters in plays.