Editing Ian McKellen (section)

===LGBT rights===
[[File:McKellen 2010.jpg|thumb|McKellen at [[Manchester Pride]] 2010]]

While McKellen had made his [[sexual orientation]] known to fellow actors early on in his stage career, it was not until 1988 that he [[came out]] to the general public while appearing on the [[BBC Radio]] programme ''Third Ear'' hosted by conservative journalist [[Peregrine Worsthorne]].<ref>An archived recording of the programme is online: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/gay_rights/12012.shtml "''Third Ear'': Section 28"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518143125/http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/gay_rights/12012.shtml |date=18 May 2019 }}, BBC Radio 3, 27 January 1988</ref> The context that prompted McKellen's decision, overriding any concerns about a possible negative effect on his career, was that the controversial Section 28 of the Local Government Bill, known simply as [[Section 28]], was then under consideration in the [[British Parliament]].<ref name="actors" /> Section 28 proposed prohibiting local authorities from promoting homosexuality "... as a kind of pretended family relationship".<ref name="4letter">{{cite news|date=20 January 2000|publisher=BBC|title=When gay became a four-letter word|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/611704.stm|access-date=5 January 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090528040056/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/611704.stm|archive-date=28 May 2009|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="actors" /><ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/gay_rights/12012.shtml "''Third Ear'': Section 28"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518143125/http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/gay_rights/12012.shtml |date=18 May 2019 }}, BBC Radio 3, 27 January 1988</ref> McKellen has stated that he was influenced in his decision by the advice and support of his friends, among them noted gay author [[Armistead Maupin]].<ref name="actors" /> In a 1998 interview that discusses the 29th anniversary of the [[Stonewall riots]], McKellen commented, <blockquote>I have many regrets about not having come out earlier, but one of them might be that I didn't engage myself in the politicking.<ref>Mendelsohn, Scott, [http://bombsite.com/issues/65/articles/2189 "Ian McKellen"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525125837/http://bombsite.com/issues/65/articles/2189 |date=25 May 2012 }}, ''[[BOMB Magazine]]''. Fall 1998. Retrieved on [18 July 2012.]</ref></blockquote> He has said of this period: <blockquote>My own participating in that campaign was a focus for people [to] take comfort that if Ian McKellen was on board for this, perhaps it would be all right for other people to be as well, gay and straight.<ref name="advocate-2001" /></blockquote> Section 28 was, however, enacted and remained on the statute books until it was repealed in 2000 in Scotland and 2003 in England and Wales. Section 28 never applied in Northern Ireland.

In 2003, during an appearance on ''[[Have I Got News For You]]'', McKellen claimed when he visited [[Michael Howard]], then [[Secretary of State for the Environment|Environment Secretary]] (responsible for local government), in 1988 to lobby against Section 28, Howard refused to change his position but did ask him to leave an autograph for his children. McKellen agreed, but wrote, "Fuck off, I'm gay".<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3266571.stm 10 things we didn't know this time last week] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071227184326/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3266571.stm |date=27 December 2007 }}. BBC News. 14 November 2003.</ref><ref>{{Citation|title=HIGNFY S26E04 Jimmy Carr, Ross Noble & Ian McKellen| date=17 June 2018 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0BuNjCZYoU|language=en|access-date=28 January 2022|archive-date=28 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128184936/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0BuNjCZYoU|url-status=live}}</ref> McKellen described Howard's junior ministers, Conservatives [[David Wilshire]] and [[Jill Knight]], who were the architects of Section 28, as the 'ugly sisters' of a political pantomime.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mckellen.com/writings/activism/8807section28.htm|title=Section 28|publisher=Ian McKellen Official Website|date=1 July 1988|access-date=20 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233538/http://www.mckellen.com/writings/activism/8807section28.htm|archive-date=3 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Ian McKellen at Europride 2003 Parade.jpg|thumb|McKellen at [[Europride]] 2003 in [[Manchester]]]]

McKellen has continued to be very active in [[LGBT rights]] efforts. In a statement on his website regarding his activism, the actor commented:
{{blockquote|I have been reluctant to lobby on other issues I most care about—nuclear weapons (against), religion (atheist), capital punishment (anti), AIDS (fund-raiser) because I never want to be forever spouting, diluting the impact of addressing my most urgent concern; legal and social equality for gay people worldwide.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mckellen.com/activism/index.htm|title=Activism|publisher=Ian McKellen Official Website|access-date=13 July 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080819152224/http://mckellen.com/activism/index.htm|archive-date=19 August 2008|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

McKellen is a co-founder of [[Stonewall (UK)|Stonewall]], an LGBT rights [[Lobbying|lobby]] group in the United Kingdom, named after the [[Stonewall riots]].<ref name="albert" /> McKellen is also patron of [[LGBT History Month]],<ref name="history"/> [[Pride London]], Oxford Pride, GAY-GLOS, [[LGBT Foundation]]<ref name="high"/> and [[FFLAG]] where he appears in their video "Parents Talking".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fflag.org.uk|title=Home|author=Toby|work=fflag.org.uk|access-date=23 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190809012041/https://www.fflag.org.uk/|archive-date=9 August 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1994, at the closing ceremony of the [[Gay Games]], he briefly took the stage to address the crowd, saying, "I'm Sir Ian McKellen, but you can call me Serena": This nickname, given to him by [[Stephen Fry]], had been circulating within the gay community since McKellen's knighthood was conferred.<ref name="advocate-2001"/> In 2002, he was the Celebrity Grand Marshal of the [[San Francisco Pride Parade]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mckellen.com/events/sfpride.htm|title=SF Pride 2002 {{!}} San Francisco {{!}} Ian McKellen|date=n.d.|website=www.mckellen.com|access-date=2 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320171431/http://www.mckellen.com/events/sfpride.htm|archive-date=20 March 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> and he attended the Academy Awards with his then-boyfriend, New Zealander Nick Cuthell. In 2006, McKellen spoke at the pre-launch of the 2007 LGBT History Month in the UK, lending his support to the organisation and its founder, [[Sue Sanders]].<ref name="history">{{cite web|url=http://www.lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/prelaunch.htm|title=LGBT History Month 2007 PreLaunch|publisher=LGBT History Month|date=20 November 2006|access-date=15 June 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304070143/http://www.lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/prelaunch.htm|archive-date=4 March 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2007, he became a patron of [[The Albert Kennedy Trust]], an organisation that provides support to young, homeless and troubled LGBT people.<ref name="albert">{{cite web|url=http://www.akt.org.uk/latest-news.htm|title=Ian McKellen becomes the Albert Kennedy Trust's new patron|publisher=The Albert Kennedy Trust|date=5 January 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070211033940/http://www.akt.org.uk/latest-news.htm|archive-date=11 February 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2006, he became a patron of Oxford Pride, stating:<blockquote>I send my love to all members of Oxford Pride, their sponsors and supporters, of which I am proud to be one&nbsp;... Onlookers can be impressed by our confidence and determination to be ourselves and gay people, of whatever age, can be comforted by the occasion to take the first steps towards coming out and leaving the closet forever behind.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/oxfordshire/4754409.stm |title=Sir Ian becomes gay pride patron |work=BBC News |date=10 May 2006 |access-date=5 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111101207/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/oxfordshire/4754409.stm |archive-date=11 November 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref></blockquote>

McKellen has taken his activism internationally, and caused a major stir in Singapore, where he was invited to do an interview on a morning show and shocked the interviewer by asking if they could recommend him a [[gay bar]]; the programme immediately ended.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hudson|first1=Chrys|title=Ian McKellen's gay comment causes a stir on Singaporean TV|url=http://www.gmax.co.za/feel07/10/22-ianmc.html|access-date=12 April 2017|work=GMax.co.za|date=22 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120523050230/http://www.gmax.co.za/feel07/10/22-ianmc.html|archive-date=23 May 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> In December 2008, he was named in ''[[Out (magazine)|Out]]''{{'s}} annual Out 100 list.<ref>[http://out.com/out100/nominees_8.asp "Ian McKellen."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225232142/http://out.com/out100/nominees_8.asp |date=25 February 2009 }} ''[[Out (magazine)|Out]]''. December 2008. Retrieved 28 April 2009.</ref>

In 2010, McKellen extended his support for [[Liverpool]]'s [[Homotopia (festival)|Homotopia]] festival in which a group of gay and lesbian [[Merseyside]] teenagers helped to produce an anti-[[homophobia]] campaign pack for schools and youth centres across the city.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/03/10/ian-mckellen-backs-liverpool-anti-homophobia-effort|title=Ian McKellen backs Liverpool anti-homophobia effort|work=Pink News|access-date=20 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617044529/http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/03/10/ian-mckellen-backs-liverpool-anti-homophobia-effort/|archive-date=17 June 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> In May 2011, he called [[Sergey Sobyanin]], Moscow's mayor, a "coward" for refusing to allow gay parades in the city.<ref>{{cite web |title=McKellen Calls Moscow Mayor a Coward  |url=http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/05/26/McKellan_Calls_Moscow_Mayor_a_Coward |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110528124620/http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/05/26/McKellan_Calls_Moscow_Mayor_a_Coward/ |archive-date=28 May 2011 |access-date=18 July 2011 |publisher=The Advocate}}</ref>

In 2014, he was named in the top 10 on the World Pride Power list.<ref>{{cite news|title=World Pride Power List 2014 |url=http://www.worldpridepowerlist.com/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120605192516/http://www.worldpridepowerlist.com/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=5 June 2012 |work=The Guardian  }}</ref>