Alan Cumming: ‘A lot of young gay guys are like, who cares about the AIDS crisis?’
Award-winning gay actor Alan Cumming has said some young gay men don’t care about the AIDS crisis.
Cumming, who is starring in new gay drama After Louie, says people don’t recognise the scale of the challenge faced by older gay men.
The new film looks at the different experiences of an older gay man and a younger one, and the generational differences they face.
He told the Guardian: “I know so many older gay men who are like: ‘You don’t know what the Aids crisis was like,’ but I also know a lot of young gay guys who are like: ‘Who cares?'”
Asked which side he falls on the question, he said: “I can see it from both sides.
“I can understand why younger people can feel slightly patronised by older people who lived through it.
“But at the same time, I can also understand the bewilderment and despair that people from an older generation went through.
“I know people who went through all that, who are like: ‘Isn’t it amazing that these kids don’t have to worry like we did?’
“It’s a very nuanced argument.
“What I love about the film is that both characters learn and grow, and realise that maybe they were a little too didactic in their respective corners.”
It comes after TV comic Paul O’Grady harshly criticised young gay men who try to contract HIV.
O’Grady said so-called ‘poz parties’ are an insult to those who died during the AIDS crisis.
He said: “The younger generation, they see it [HIV] as a sort of older person’s problem.
“When you hear about these poz parties and ‘poz me up’ and all this. It makes me angry. Really angry.”
