You are here: Home » Entertainment » Celebrities » Jane Lynch Talks About Being Out in Hollywood

Jane Lynch Talks About Being Out in Hollywood

Posted by: Natasia Rose on July 9, 2010.

: Image by bobster855 via Flickr

07/09/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

Being “Out in Hollywood” is a major theme of this years Los Angeles Outfest. Meredith Baxter will be sitting on a panel discussing it on July 17th and Jane Lynch addressed the issue at the event yesterday.

“It’s funny, when I was younger I used to lie in bed and think, ‘What will I do if I ever get famous and they find out I’m gay?’ I would really angst about that…It just happened so naturally and I didn’t hide anything.”

In fact, Lynch is a great example of an actress being accepted by the mainstream. She is rapidly becoming as popular as Ellen DeGeneres with her turn as a maniacal cheerleading coach on Glee and when she recently got married to Dr. Lara Embry, fans and media alike were genuinely happy for her.

Lynch was honoured with this year’s Outfest Achievement Award, as well. She credited the actresses who were brave enough to come out before her and who stood up and represented queer women in Hollywood.

“It’s the people that came before me that have really blazed a trail for me. Ellen DeGeneres, Rosie O’Donnell, Melissa Etheridge, Kd Lang, those people that stood up when it wasn’t popular and said, ‘I’m gay – deal with it.’”

There has been a ton of controversy over whether or not queer actors can play straight characters or whether queer actions should come out of the closet if they want to be successful, with the gay community itself on both sides of the issue. In regards to this, Lynch says:

“I never let anything like my sexuality stop me from pursuing what I wanted to do and what I do has nothing to do with my orientation really…I play straight people all the time, I think I’m an actor first before I’m a gay person.”

[Source]