Staff Writer
Neil Patrick Harris from How I Met Your Mother has described himself as “a very content gay man living life to the fullest”. Harris is currently preparing for his starring role in the Broadway production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and sat down with Huffpost Live to discuss the production, the end of How I Met Your Mother as well as his own experience of coming out.
“For me, I fell in love with a dude and started spending all my time with him. And therefore, you don’t want to be suppressive of that,” explains the star. “I didn’t want to make David [Burtka] feel like he didn’t exist in my life and at the same time I didn’t want David’s identity to be, ‘The guy that’s dating me.’ It’s a very individual thing.”
Harris expressed the struggle he found in coming out and the pressure that is on celebrities to do it; he stated, “Here’s a good analogy—if you’re going to jump into the pool and you’re not sure how to swim, it’s probably not so effective to just push someone into the pool… It’s probably not the best way.”
Harris and Burtka have been dating for nine years. Though they formally announced their engagement in 2011 following the passing of the Marriage Equality Act in New York, they confirmed that they had actually proposed to one another five years earlier, but kept it secret till their engagement would be formally recognized.
While Harris has been openly out since 2006, he acknowledged the difficulty that many LGBTI celebrities still have with coming out publicly and offered this advice, “It’s little baby steps of acceptance in your own personal sphere. You have to choose the times that feel right for you to make moves.” Harris revealed that he is glad that “times are changing” and that “[p]eople seem less concerned about who you’re f–––ing, and more importantly [about] who you fall in love with.”
You can catch Harris in the final season of How I Met Your Mother Mondays 8/7c on CBS.
http://www.Twitter.com/PopWrapped
http://www.PopWrapped.Tumblr.com/
http://www.SoundCloud.com/PopWrapped
http://www.Facebook.com/PopWrapped
http://www.Instagram.com/PopWrapped
http://www.Pinterest.com/PopWrapped
http://www.YouTube.com/PopWrapped
http://www.PopWrapped.wordpress.com/
http://www.PopWrapped.com
Author
