John Barrowman: ‘I felt great about gay Commonwealth kiss’
By Josh Haggis
John Barrowman has said he “felt great” about kissing a man during the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.
During the live televised ceremony in July, which was watched by an estimated one billion viewers worldwide, the out gay actor/TV presenter planted a kiss on a man’s lips before skipping off with him hand-in-hand while cries of “Here’s to equality in Scotland!” were heard in the background. Click here to watch a clip of the kiss.
The Arrow star has now spoken about the kiss in a new interview, explaining that the idea behind it was to showcase Scotland’s pride in its LGBT community.
“Oh I felt great about it, because it was a scripted thing that was in there,” Barrowman told our friends at Digital Spy. “We’d been rehearsing it and I’m glad that it raised everybody’s awareness.”
“I think it’s like 80% of the Commonwealth countries where gay marriage and being gay is illegal. We did it to show that Scotland is proud of the gay community, of gay marriage, of equality for everybody,” he added.
Homosexuality is illegal in 42 of the 53 nations that competed in the Commonwealth Games. Some of the participating nations, most notably Uganda, Brunei and Jamaica, have become especially notorious for their extreme anti-gay laws in recent years.