TV Star Wentworth Miller Comes Out, Rejects Russian Invite

Wentworth Miller is best known as the smouldering sexy star of the Fox hit television series Prison Break from a few years ago (2005-2009). Now 41, Miller is making headlines this week for coming out as a gay man as he publicizes his declination of an invitation to visit Russia in protest of its notoriously homophobic and unwelcome atmosphere for openly LGBT individuals.

Miller wrote a letter which GLAAD publicized on its blog:

August 21, 2013

Re: St. Petersburg International Film Festival / "Guest of Honor" Invitation

Dear Ms. Averbakh:

Thank you for your kind invitation. As someone who has enjoyed visiting Russia in the past and can also claim a degree of Russian ancestry, it would make me happy to say yes.

However, as a gay man, I must decline.

I am deeply troubled by the current attitude toward and treatment of gay men and women by the Russian government. The situation is in no way acceptable, and I cannot in good conscience participate in a celebratory occasion hosted by a country where people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly.

Perhaps, when and if circumstances improve, I'll be free to make a different choice.

Until then.

Wentworth Miller

Member, HRC
Member, GLAAD
Member, The ManKind Project

It will be interesting to see if this move by Miller will encourage other closeted celebrities to come out of the closet to publicize the extreme homophobia being exhibited in Russia.