Guardian newspaper corrects mistaking outing Sir Patrick Stewart

February 18, 2014 · found by

The Guardian has made a correction to an article on Ellen Page’s coming out where Sir Patrick Stewart was incorrectly outed. The former Star Trek captain had retweeted Page’s tweet of thanks to the Human Rights Campaign. An opinion piece in the Guardian then assumed Patrick Stewart was gay, possibly because he’s friends with gay-rights campaigner and fellow actor Sir Ian Mckellen, but the paper has since corrected the article and issued a correction.

To be fair, I had previously researched this and found Sir Patrick is married and has children, so who could complain making the mistake. In true British style Sir Patrick replied to the Guardian’s correction over Twitter with good humor.

The original tweet that sparked the mistake.

Now considering the point of the Guardian article, author Jane Czyzselska makes the case for not making such a big deal about celebrities who come out. We all know coming out is a personal decision and journey, yet it’s really no longer such a big deal, at least to other people. Straights don’t need to come out, although in Sir Patrick’s case that’s not necessarily true.

True equality would be that it doesn’t matter and no one would need to come out either way. However in a society that still has discrimination, from Russia to Kansas, it’s fair for people, including celebrities but especially for everyday citizens in hot-zones, to keep their sexuality hidden fearing oppression. Actually maybe today’s celebrities have it easy, though without looking on Twitter it’s likely there were a lot of vicious and degrading attacks made to Page following her outing.