tiwaz1022 — 11 years ago(November 20, 2014 07:36 PM)

He referred to himself as such in one of the quotes here at imdb. But what does it mean? A straight-acting homosexual? Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi are much older than Nathan Lane. Are they "oldfashioned homosexuals" too? I refer to the age issue because in that interview, Nathan Lane said that he was born in 1956; thus perhaps indicating that he is an "older" gay man. Let me quote a substantial portion of the interview with the
New York Times
magazine where he used this label to refer to himself. The context of the interview was the murder of Matthew Shepard, an event which occasioned Nathan Lane's more public expression of his sexual orientation:
"We're talking about someone's life, not a to-do list. From the time I told my mother, I've been living openly. But really, I was born in 1956. I'm one of those old-fashioned homosexuals, not one of the newfangled ones who were born joining parades. My family referred to them as 'fags,' and that was it. And yes, career-wise, I didn't want to be branded as a big fruitcake and that's all I could do. On a personal level, I don't immediately open up to anybody, even about what colors I like, much less something like this. I am my mother, OK? Just without the housedress and slippers." (cf: Luca Prono,
Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Popular Culture
, p. 165).
Is an "old-fashioned homosexual" in fact a closet gay man?