–
Ellen Page documents how gay people live around the world with “Gaycation.”
—
After years of “lying by omission,” actress Ellen Page is out and proud and gearing up to debut her latest project, Gaycation.
Page and her “soul twin,” Ian Daniel, traveled around the world to see places where “coming out doesn’t win you a standing ovation.” Page and Daniel go to places from Jamaica to Japan to the Iowa State Fair (where she calls out Ted Cruz) to explore the LGBT culture.
Along the way, they meet people all over the spectrum, from aggressive people – like a Brazilian who said if he sees “‘a gay person, I run them over” – to one young man who wanted them to be there when he came out to his mother (“which was one of the most intense experiences of my life,” Page said).
Since coming out on Valentine’s Day two years ago, Page is feeling more comfortable.
“I felt, let’s just please be done with this chapter of discomfort and sadness and anxiety, and hurting my relationships, and all those things that come with it,” she said. “I felt guilty for not being a visible person for the community, and for having the privilege that I had and not using it. I had got to the point where I was telling myself, you know, youshould feel guilty about this. I was an active participant in an element of Hollywood and that is gross. I would never judge somebody else for not coming out, but for me, personally, it did start to feel like a moral imperative.”
◊♦◊
When asked if she thinks coming out has affected the roles she has gotten as an actress and she nodded.
“I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t something I feared, and that’s the big reason so many people haven’t come out,” she said. “For me, being out within my life became far more important than being in any movie.”
By The Seattle Lesbian
This article was previously published on The Next Family.
—
Source: 30dB.com – %23Gaycation
—
Photo: Getty Images
I just love labels, don’t you?