Phillip Schofield has come out as gay

[catinb0oots]

Blimey. Married for 27 years.

Yes it was full of contradictions

How can anyone be gay, yet married to someone of the opposite sex for so long? Surely Bi is the accurate description. Unless he's been out to his wife for 20+ years (things were different then and ignoring your feelings was more common) and someone is about to go public/blackmail???

Sarah I didn't say I was a champion. Were you in the LGB community in the 1980s and 1990s?

I get why a kids tv presenter might want to keep it quiet in the 90s but a TV presenter in 2010?

I hope his wife knew and has pursued her own relationship/s for years.

I also guarantee he writes a tell all bestseller about this now.

The thing is yes it’s horrible for his wife but 30 years ago homophobia was rife, even more than now. If people stopped being so homophobic then gay people wouldn’t feel the need to pretend to be straight and enter relationships and this kind of thing wouldn’t happen. Homophobia has many victims!

I CANNOT BELIVE THIS, FUMING

Would you like to expand on that should comment? What would make you fume?

Oh right so marrying a woman and having children whilst struggling with your sexuality and eventually leaving them isn't gaslighting? It isn't making them believe you're something that you know yourself not to be? It isn't fixing a narrative that suits your agenda and imposing it on those around you? Alrighty then @SoupDragon

He's in the entertainment industry. There have been openly out TV presenters for decades now. Homophobia isn't an excuse for deception.

I honestly do not care in the slightest about Philip Schofield but why come out now?

It seems suspicious to me. Why has he not come out before or just stay quiet for ever? It seems more than likely there was going to be a story in the papers about him.

Also why the big interview with Holly and Ruth and Eamonn all there? God he loves publicity doesn't he? Probably not as much as he loves himself though

I’m confused, did she know he was gay all along?

Why announce it? They could've just quietly separated then in a few months discuss his sexuality if he had to. I know people presume he's about to be outed, but he said no his hand hadn't been forced it just felt the right time.

I wish him well but it's all been done in a very attention seeking, dramatic way when there's just no need.

Oh who really gives a monkeys?

Cue blockbuster autobiography coming out in the next couple of months...

Meh! Clearly been forced into it. Didn't like him before, don't like him now. Seems a spiteful man to me. Poor wife and kids. He's basically cheated them for 27 years and he's "brave"? Nope.

I have a lot of compassion for him, and for his family.

Coming out is never easy. I was lucky that I was able to do it as a teenager. I've known a few people men and women who have come out later in life. There's always considerable collateral damage. And the longer it's left, the more hurtful it is. A good friend of mine is still reeling from when his wife came out, 17 years into their marriage.

This is why it is so, so SO important that we strive to create the awareness and conditions so that people can come out as lesbian, gay or bisexual when they are young. There's always going to be a need for LGB people to come out we're a tiny minority, and always will be it has to be something that young people can approach without shame or judgement. Because when it gets pushed down, hidden, buried in embarrassment, shame or anger; that's when people end up hurting others around them by desperate or poor decision-making.

On PS... there's a lot to be read between the lines of that statement. This has not been an easy or neat decision. He is acknowledging that he still has pain, and has caused it to others.

I was around in the late 80s / early 90s. I’m pleased for those that had the experience of it been accepting and welcoming environment. That wasn’t my experience at all.
The movie ‘Philadelphia’ came out in 1993 and amongst my family and some friends there was talk about not wanting to watch a film about ‘poofters’. I recall teachers discussing gay sex and making sick motions, to much laughter in the room. Section 28 was a thing.
A friend tried to kill her self rather than admitting she was lesbian - she only came out a few years ago.
Being gay and being a pervert were synonymous for much of my teenage years in the early 1990s.
PS was, at that time, a much loved children’s entertainer - being out would have been a career killer. Name me another out children’s entertainer who was out at that time?

I’m sure his wife isn’t exactly happy but what else was he going to do now he was in this situation?!?!

No doubt that scumbag piers Morgan was going to out him, which forced Phil into telling the world. Piers' filthy rags have been hounding him for ages.

That's just not true, @GFJoe.

Lots of people don't know they're gay.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one then.

*I suspect many straight people who aren’t ‘in love’ get married too.

Well maybe they shouldn't! Here's a revolutionary idea. Don't lie. How many of the spouses know that their spouses aren't 'in love' with them. Because straight people deceive their spouses too doesn't make it ok for gay people to*

Awful lot of assumptions there. Loving is as valid as being “in love”, more so actually because “in love” doesn’t stand the test of time. Wedding vows are to love and cherish, not be “in love”. I was never in love with my bloke but I do love him enough to be with him for over 20 years. And I haven’t lied to him.

Sarah I didn't say I was a champion.

No, but you presented yourself as one, with your oh-so-brave defence of the LGB community.

Were you in the LGB community in the 1980s and 1990s?

Yes.

Cue blockbuster autobiography coming out in the next couple of months

And a new album

the reactions on this thread go some way to illustrate why you might not want to come out as gay, dont they?

This is exactly what I wanted to say.

@SoleBizzz Is that real? He will have a long hard fall from grace if seedy stories rear their ugly head.

I'm glad to come on here and see some reasonable comments instead of how brave he is and forgetting about his wife - a la Facebook.

Sarah you're the only person who jumped to that characterisation. And as you'll see other posters agreed with me. It's interesting your experience of coming out in the 1980s/1990s in the entertainment industry is different. It doesn't negate that Philip's narrative isn't helpful to anyone ... except him. (Oh, and you obviously!)