Jim Parsons wants you to accept genderfluid people
(ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty)
Jim Parsons has spoken out in support of genderfluid people.
The Big Bang Theory star, who married his long-term partner last year, opened up ahead of the release of his new film, A Kid Like Jake.
The film – which also stars Claire Danes, Priyanka Chopra and Octavia Spencer – focuses on New York couple Greg and Alex Wheeler and their four-year-old son, who has started to exhibit gender non-conforming behaviour.
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Parsons, the highest-paid gay actor in the world, said he “felt very strongly” about the issue, and told AM New York he had every hope that the next generation would make strides towards full equality.
He pointed to the response to the deadly Parkland shooting in February as evidence, saying: “I was watching back in March, after the Florida school shooting, and it was just so moving to see a younger generation taking to the streets, on their feet, and speaking so eloquently and passionately.
“As a 45-year-old gay man, who’s been able to be an out and working actor, I feel grateful for the time I grew up in, but I feel like there’s a level of inclusiveness and openness to all sorts of human beings that we’ve never seen as a society before,” he said hopefully.
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“Even in our best of times, we’ve never quite known it to the level we might know it in the next 15 or 20 years, as this generation comes into prominence and power.
“You get that impression that you’re dealing with a whole generation that has grown up thinking it’s not okay to slander people for being gay and more recently, slander people for gender fluidity,” added Parsons.
“It’s a different world and it sounds like, quite possibly, a better world.”
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A Kid Like Jake, he said, could calm some parents’ fears about the tidal wave of change and the difficulties associated with adapting to new language and standards.
The actor, who came out in 2012 after a New York Times writer outed him, said: “It takes a little bit of mystery and a little bit of fear away from a topic that could feel very lonely.
“The movie doesn’t offer any answers or solutions, but what it does is make it okay to ask dumb questions, to fumble with something that you don’t fully understand,” he continued.
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“What you can understand is that as a human being, with the best intentions, you’re still going to slip, fall and fumble, and that has to be okay.”
The star of screen and stage also said that he had suffered an injury during one of his performances of Broadway show The Boys in the Band.
(Rich Polk/Getty)
“I fractured my foot during curtain call,” he said, “but it’s been a real joy. It’s been a very unique experience.
“I’ve never worked with eight other gay male actors, and I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a special camaraderie we have. I can’t necessarily put my finger on it exactly, but there’s a real unity and bond. I feel so very fortunate for it.”
