Ian McKellen: Secret Gay Life Like Being a Jew in Hitler’s Europe
by Big Hollywood
“It was illegal for me to do (things) as a private person. Outside London, where I lived, there was no gay pub or bar you could go to. And even if you found one, it was, ‘Knock three times and ask for Louis’. It was horrible living this secret life. You could feel a little bit what it was like to be a Jew in central Europe during a certain period. It was horrible.”
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157 Comments
Ridiculous comparison. Did he face firing squads and gas chambers? What an idiot.
He does look a bit confused, doesn't he?
Wait; as a Gay man was he restricted from entering Straight pubs or did he mean he was deprived of the potential to "hook up". The horror…
How horrifying. The only thing worse than that is being a straight, white, Christian male in America in 2009. Everybody hates us.
Um, he could have just said it was like being gay in Hitler's Europe because if history classes serve me correctly, the pink triangle of Nazi Germany wasn't exactly a term of endearment. If you were any type of dissenter and/or you didn't fit the physical profile Hitler desired, you were pretty much f*cked in that game of eugenics.
Also, were there gay concentration camps in London and Liverpool of which I was unaware? Were gays kept malnourished on trains alongside American soliders in Weston-super-Mare?
Perspective, Sir Ian. Perspective.
Okfalls, you nailed it. Gay bars are about having sex with strangers in the bathroom. He's a good actor, but that doesn't doesn't change the truth.
if his comparison was to being a conservative in the obama whitehouse, or even a capitalist i might believe him, but not a jew in ww2. some people might not know not being a jew was just as bad, if you could not prove you were not a jew, they came for you also, just incase.
I am a huge admirer of Sir Ian as an actor particularly when he takes genuinely grown-up roles. (Concerning his turns in the "Lord of the Rings" and the "X-Men" movies – Well not so much.) His Shakespeare resume is legendary and I have never seen a better piece of screen acting than his depiction of James Whale in "Gods and Monsters." Good man that he is however, he has fallen into the rhetorical trap of so many gays in the arts who conflate their historical status with the worst excesses of human history. The comparisons with the Holocaust are preposterous and, at some level, McKellan must know it. I recall a blurb he gave for the first "X-Men" movie where he equated Magneto's character (who was sent to a German concentration camp as a boy) with the situation of the gay community. It was ridiculous then and it is ridiculous now. Someone should tell him that excessive self-pity is not an attractive trait.
He also could have said it was like being someone in Obama's Cabinet who paid their taxes.
Ok, Ian, we get it, you played Magneto, who as a child watched his parents get killed in the camps. Back to real life, now.
Which makes this idea even more attocious. If you did any research into your role, you might get the idea that the comparison is weak.
What a whiny baby he sounds like. Dont ruin Gandolf for me ok Ian.
Actually I can understand Sir Ian's concern, but the world ain't that way anymore so please get over it.
Just wait until Sharia law takes effect in Europe. Then the comparison will be a little more real.
You are exactly right! You must know from experience?
I'm putting my hands to my ears, Sir McKellen, so I won't have my image of Gandalf ruined. Why can't you actors just keep your mouths shut if you're gay? Who cares how you have sex? Indeed, comparing the holocaust to a lifestyle choice is absurdity at its most absurd. When you do this, you spit all over that magnificent body of work that has made the lives of many people brighter and richer. I'm sorry you continue to choose to do it.
What is it with gays and latching onto other people's suffering? Whether it's the blacks and civil rights in America, and now the jews in Hitler's Europe. Can't they just speak for themselves?
In the late 1990's I was profiled twice by Gaydom and denied entrance into their exclusive, intolerant clubs.
The first time was when my friends and I, a straight white guy, a gay black guy and a straight white female would not let the straight white inside BUT allowed the gay black man and the straight white women to enter.
The second time was when my gay black friend and I wanted to dance at a gay club-I was denied entrance; why would a room full of males strung up on steroids be fearful of a female?
So whatever happened over forty years ago is completely the opposite of what is happening today.
Mr. McKellen, you do not have a case to stand upon so stop making up stuff.
no but he did risk being bashed for kicks and giggles. Bashed includes being maimed or killed with the attacker never sought since it was only a queer.
Cry me a freaking river, you pathetic example of a man. Why don't you show some real courage and live as a gay man in Iran or Syria. You can blog to me how it feels to fall 5 stories from a building that the Mullahs just tossed you from.
I'd give you a thumbs up but I'm not registered yet.
Maybe he should have moved to California. I had friends in high school with pronounced lisps and pink hair that nobody said "boo" to. They generally hung out in Laguna Beach and cruised PCH. And of course Burbank and Hollywood were very gay friendly in the 60s as well.
A successfully actor, embraced by both the gay and straight communities for his work, claims to have suffered discrimination on the level of the Holocaust. He may be a great actor but even he can not pull that one off.
Yes, it must've a living hell for those Jews, not having any Jewish bars or Jewish Pride parades in the Warsaw ghetto.
Great actor, by the way.
He still would've been wrong. Gays in Hitler's Europe were rounded up and exterminated. The least of their worries was not being able to find a good gay bar.
That a faghag is discriminated against is unheard of, please fill out the complaint form at the desk, this should not be tolerated. You said it yourself it is a club, not a sideshow of le queer follies. So go to A movie and eat chinese with your girlfriend next time.
I hardly think that the lack of gay pubs outside of London equates to the many deaths and privations suffered by Jews and non-Jews in Hitler's Nazi Germany. Homosexual social clubs have existed in Britain for hundreds of years.
Actually, I do. It is 100% true. Homosexual sex is a compulsive, sad business.
he face gas from a "partner's" butt
Now you know how Catholics have felt (to varying degrees in England since Fat Henry). BTW Sir Ian, tell our American cousins about the whispering campaign against Tony Blair; not because he was a useless leftie, or gay, but because he "might" have secretly converted whilst he was PM, and we can't have a Catholic as PM can we? Are Muslims forbidden by law from being monarch? Atheists? Agnostics? Zoroastrians? Are…gays? Oh, no, that's just Catholics. Tell me about the constant hammer and anvil approach of HMG toward Catholic schools and adoptions. Can you please compare and contrast the treatment of Catholics and homosexuals under law since Fat Henry, Sir Ian? I think you'll find it isn't men like you that have been treated as IPSO FACTO enemies of the state, quite the contrary…
Grow up! Gay men and women were persucuted equally by the Nazi regime and incacerated in concentration camps also. Some people need to get a friggin clue.
of all the dumb comments……. nit wit.
all sex us usually compulsive. so who died and made you a sex doctor?
If you really read the man's quote, if it is accurate, he states "…a little bit like.." Now I'm sure that many of the homophobes here can't count to three, but his analogy, albeit stretched makes his point about his feelings.
They also behead nit wits.
Ian, I'd tell you to suck it up but you've evidently already did that.
http://noliberalspin.blogtownhall.com/
The Anti Liberal Zone
REVOLT!
http://noliberalspin.blogtownhall.com/2009/10/30/...
Really? I thought they just made them Presidents for Life?
Because something happenbed to you doesn't make it a pattern.
Yes so many Nazi camps in Britain lol
What tripe. Another anguished actor. Yo Ian, doesn't England led the world in ~per capita gaiety~?
The backstage areas of the West End must have been the modern equivilent of the Roman baths, or akin to San Frans' bath houses and this *poof* couldn't get his twisted freak on?
Denegrating real victims by comparing his pathetic sordid sex life to the Jews of Hitler's Germany is another liberal example of cheapening that horror to enhance their own questionable stature. Sickening.
REading peoples minds are we? Thought crimes because another doesn't agree with you…
Report to reeducation camp immediately
Bravo. You are entirely correct about the Catholic church's status in Britain. The last bastion of state sponsored bigotry.
British "comedy" can't go 5 minutes without denegrating the Catolic Church or nuns or the priesthood.
It's a staple with these snaggle-toothed whiny liberals.
Yeah, because the Jews' biggest fear was not being able to find a jew-friendly bar.
The District of Columbia has more HIV-AIDS cases than any city in the country. Here, a staggering 1 out of 20 people is infected with the virus. And like most American cities with an HIV-AIDS problem, the burden disproportionately falls on the black community.
In fact, more than 80 percent of all new cases in the district are African-Americans.
No need to be lonely in d.C. But your next date could be a death sentence.
So you've seen sex in bathrooms? What's sad is married men going to strip clubs to get horny for their wives. What's sad are swingers who can't get excited for their loved one anymore so they have to have anonymous sex in groups. What's sad are massage parlours for men who can't get sex on their own. What's sad is the big business of prostitution for men who can't get sex on their own or who don't want to sleep with their fat wife. What's sad are men who rape women and girls. I could go on and on….
You're young, aren't you? Go look up Alan Turing and the last years of his life. McKellan, first of all, doesn't say they're comparable; he says "You could feel a little bit what it was like to be a Jew in central Europe…." Second, as other point out, it *was* physically dangerous, as well as legally perilous, to be gay in those days.
Read some history; you're making a fool of yourself.
Ian is a great actor, but on sexual issues he's whining "I'm a victim because the whole universe doesn't like what I do!"
Man up, will you?
Just Another Drama Queen
What's sad is men going to strip clubs so they can get it up for their wive's. What's sad are married couples who aren't attracted to eachother anymore so they go to swingers clubs and get it on in groups. What's sad are "massage parlours" on the way home to the fam. What's sad are men who rape. Those are all straight activities right? Am I generalizing too much. Get a clue.
"If you go to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair…"
From what I've read, the death sentence is also true for those in the homosexual lifestyle.
On a related note, check out this commentary:
"The truth about homosexuality and the Nazi Party"
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/fischer/080515
Isn't that a trait commonly found among actors and the entertainment industry?
Zing!
Since my previous insensitive reply has not appeared after mediation. Hags although a mainstay in gaydom are not honorary club members, you said yourself it was a club. Eat some Ben & Jerry's with your girlfriend or cookie doe and watrch Pricilla Queen of the Dessert, a good movie and to keep up with the Rings connection.
Before he became a famous militant, Malcolm X was a gay prostitute.
Funny how you just don't hear that bit of info, isn't it?
I grew up in an age when HIV-AIDS was not a consideration. The worst you had to deal with (if you were the least bit careful) was a mild case of a venereal disease or a crotch critter. So some may take the balance
of my statement here as BS but I put it forth anyway. Aside from a blood transfusion where your choice is
probably made for you. The fact that aids can be reduced or eliminated in a generation or so by abstinance.
The need for huge number of bucks by both the research industry and the infected for expensive drugs is
reduced. That position is however not considered a viable solution and for many of the reasons Sir Ian cites
as a denied freedom.
yes, light reading. It is not yet a crime to spout ignorance, if so Nancy Pelosi would have felony warrents, but she is a dem and the bar for misconduct is high than the rest of us.
You are absolutely dead on..
"You….shal not….passs!"
The comparison is a bit of a stretch – as is comparing *anything* to Nazi oppression – but he has a point. Turing is one example: Arrested, tried, basically bullied by the government into allowing himself to be "chemically castrated" in exchange for his freedom. And of course we can't forget Oscar Wilde. In the closet, you were fine. But if your gayness was revealed, acknowledge, confirmed, noticed by the authorities or the newspapers or even someone powerful who didn't like you – you became a criminal. Not a good way to live.
I won't be as harsh on him, just because he does say "a little bit". But I have to concur with the person who pointed out that a better comparison would be "a gay man in Nazi Germany". Of course, if he did that, it would simply point out the ridiculousness of the comparison. "Unpopular" and being considered a kind of pervert is not the same thing as getting sent to the gas chamber.
Good reference Fred2
I dunno. I've heard from G.I.s that a lot of gay stuff goes on amongst the men-folk in muslim lands….
Asking a gay to refrain from drama would be like asking an Italian to not use his hands while he talks….
Weird – I was just wasting time at work reading about this a couple of days ago. I hadn't realized that so many political, social, economic and religious restrictions on Catholics remained in place for so long after the Tudor period. Was it 1829 – about 300 years after Henry VIII's reign – that most of the restrictions were lifted? The ones about the monarchy are still in effect. Some states in America had them, too, and we inherited an anti-Catholic prejudice that can still be detected. Always that dim fear that Catholics take orders from the Pope rather than the government. How odd…
Agreed.
It's hard to equate being butchered, raped, and tortured because of one's faith with being shunned by society because you couldn't find a bar easily enough to have an orgasm with a person of the same sex.
I understand gays have faced prejudice, and hatred. The still do. But so do Christians. So do blacks. So do whites. …It all comes with being human.
But in NO WAY would I call what gays have dealt with "persecution". Any fool who uses that word doesn't know it's meaning… and any moron that would compare what the Jews suffered with what gays have suffered is just that, a moron.
…But one of the HIGHEST order.
McKellen is a typical English Nu Labour fascist. The Nu Lab fascists have eagerly adopted the screeching aggressive UNQUESTIONING promotion of homosexuality for all ages, even for very young school kids. Its disgusting that homosexuality is "officially" pushed in the classroom at 5/6/7 year old kids. They have also ridiculously lowered the legal age of consent for homosexuals which used to be a pragmatic 21. McKellen is just an embittered aging drama Queen.
There's an interesting book called "While Europe Slept." It's written by a gay guy who moved to Europe to find "tolerance." It's an interesting read. He talks about being attacked by Muslim youths, about European government just tolerating all kinds of horrible things, and about how they are bringing in vast numbers of child brides and sending back tons of welfare money to places like Pakistan. It's worth reading.
Are you accusing the Democrats of trying to make Obama President-for-Life? Shame on you.
Surely no coincidence that many of those leading the anti-Islamist movement in Holland are gay.
Good point! As proof I offer the acting community's continuing moral equivalence concerning the "blacklist" and the horrors inflicted by Stalin and others during the soviet regime. Somehow losing a couple of screen writing gigs or acting jobs was of the same magnitude as the virtual executions of tens of millions of innocents. When "Good Night and Good Luck" came out to rave reviews I shrugged and said, "Just what we expect from the corageous lions of Hollywood. Another trashing of a discredited guy who has been dead for over half a century."
Who cares what this c0ck suhcker thinks. I could care less if this pervert had his 'feelings' hurt and for him to compare the treatment of perverts to Jews during the Nazi reign of terror is revolting.
Those numbers reflect the high incidence of IV drug users in DC more than sexual contact transmission.
Motley, you are an idiot. It still amazes me how some people can continually pump out the same tired comebacks and still have other idiots clap along like trained seals. People like you are as much as the problem as the people you lambast on the left that spout the same crap for everything. Please go away as us on the right are actually trying to use ideas to combat the opposition and I have little faith you would be beneficial in this environment.
LOL! "The horror!" (I really did laugh out loud too!) Thanks!
My gosh! It must have been terrifying seeing people he knew and loved being herded onto rail cars like cattle never to see them again. And then later to find they had been killed in the most heinous ways and experimented on just because they were gay? Sigh. So glad he feels brave enough to speak truth to power now.
What me about this entire black list thing is from what I can tell it's been blown way out of proportion.
First off, it was the studios that weren't hiring, not the government. All in all, what was it, like 10 or 15 people on the list? And in the end, weren't most of the proven to be communists once the USSR fell and people got a look at their records before they were sealed up again.
The Rosenbergs really were spies selling nuclear secrets.
I can't imagine anyone else as Gandalf. Thought his performance was spot on and in several scenes he was / is magnificence!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoa4lGKxbw4
Yes, yes, nobody has or had it harder than the gays, blah blah blah.
I swear, it's almost worth having our speech policed (even more than it is now) just to see if they'll ever shut the hell up about how hard their life is.
If I remember correctly, Andrew "Dice" Clay said something about that to the effect of "What, you get sh*t on the tip of your d*ck and you DON'T think you're gonna get sick?"
In some places in Northern Ireland, Catholics are STILL being denied the same civil rights that their Protestant counterparts enjoy. It's gotten much better in recent years, but some of it's still there. Look at the peacelines in Belfast, for example. Catholics have to live in a walled-off section of the city to protest them from attack.
He does seem to be King of the Nit Wits. . . though I was thinking more about guys like Quadaffiduck and Atmahdinnerjob. But Obama does fit in nicely with that group, doesn't he?
Sorry, protect, not protest.
British Government has never been honest about the number of Catholics aka Papists that were butchered…let alone the annihilation trough neglect & oppression of the Irish….So well done Mr Kiplingscakes,
However Catholics will endure…1/3 of the Anglicans may well leave to join us papists….And Shakesphere as current theory ay prove was a hidden Catholic…As were many of the greatest writers in British History….Henry the VIII th Putz is probably rollin in his grave….chuckle……
It wouldn't surprise me because they (along with women) have the most to lose.
I thought ALL British actors were gay : )
"Man up, will you?"
Is that possible?
Everybody's a victim…
Ack. I did not know Sir Ian was gay, and I did not need to know. But most of all, I did not want to know. Seriously.
Besides, "Gandalf the Gay" just doesn't have the right "ring" to it.
Secret? Every time I turn around I hear this guy talking about the fact that he's gay.
Boo freakin' hoo. He's got an amazing career and life, and is able to live his life however he wishes. What he wants is approval of his sexual behavior.
He won't get it from me.
Heh.
I was curious about the comments on this – but the 89 can't be seen – at least by me.
I'm sure someone has pointed out just how idiotic and completely self-absorbed this is.
He was marvelous as Gandalf – though I was a bit creeped out a time or two when he and Frodo were hugging, knowing what we know about him.
Oh sorry, how Nazi-like thinking is that!
I don't get it. Why does Ian need a "gay" bar or pub? What's wrong with simply going to the local? I've never understood how who you have sex with translates into a distinct "culture." Or, for that matter, style of dress or speech affectation. Why doesn't this also apply to men who prefer blonds or red-heads, or those who have a predilection for women of a specific race? Just doesn't make sense.
the sinner,
Patrick
I'm sure his family would have been executed right along side him by those notoriously sadistic Bobbies had he been found out.
What a putz.
Or how about like being an openly gay man in Hitler's Germany? Oh wait, openly gay men were tossed into the gas chambers or shot right alongside the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. I don't seem to recall the British government ever doing anything quite that bad.
Can we all agree to stop comparing our plights past or present to the Holocaust?
I bow. And too true. He waxes sad here and yet has no idea what he is talking about.
If I'm not mistaken, he actually urinated on a Bible once to show his disdain for a faith that didn't "accept" his lifestyle.
the sinner,
Patrick
Oh please…..what a load of crap! Ian McKellen can suck my dog's cock.
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