Interview GayWired

Kathy Griffin Hosts LGBT Hot Hollywood Teen Panel

Kathy Griffin hosted an array of young LGBT stars at Thursday night's Academy of Television Arts and Science panel presented by the organization's Diversity Committee. Out Degrassi star Adamo Ruggiero, Greek star Paul James, deaf and out model Martin Ritchie of The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency fame, as well as the stars of Prayers for Bobby all lent their stories.

LGBT advocate and Emmy award wining comedienne Griffin hosted the hilarious and heartfelt evening, pulling thoughtful insights from the guests while amusing the crowd.

At one point during the program, Griffin asked Degrassi: The Next Generation star Ruggerio about his experiences playing the shows first out character, Marco.

“I got Marco just around the time I was starting to stand up for myself,” Ruggiero, who had been picked on in school for being different, remembered.  “So Marco was kind of my idol.”

“I felt like I could do what I wanted to do on the playground and on TV as well. And so, growing up with him, he was coming out faster than I was, and I just wanted to keep up.”

Griffin followed that question by asking what it  was like to be playing a character who was more out than the then very young Toronto-born actor.

“It was petrifying,” the actor admitted. “And my parents were watching the show! I ran out of excuses [not to watch it with them]. At the beginning I kind of resented [Marco] a bit, but then I realized I had like the best gay manual ever… and I got to gauge my parents reaction.”

Even with is gay manual and gauge, Ruggerio's experience of watching the show with his parents wasn’t always completely positive. He recalled that at the beginning of the series, his dad once warned him, “Don’t get too lost in your character.”

“I didn’t know what that meant,” Ruggiero said, “although I did.”

“My parents are… beautiful good people who had absolutely no clue about gay people,” a mature Ruggiero reflected adding that his parents are now 100% accepting and supportive.

“I tell that to kids a lot of the time, sometimes we want to get on the defensive… but when we come out, you don’t just declare your gayness… you become an ambassador to educate… Coming out is a very selfless time.”

Greek creator Patrick Sean Smith shared his memories of growing up in a small town that led him to create the shockingly realistic ABC Family show, which griffin was shocked to learn is fully supported by the Disney owned family network.

“Did you run this by the Cyrus dynasty?” she asked jokingly.

When Smith came out, he remembers it being a huge deal, but in researching the coming out episode of Greek’s gay character played by hunk Paul James, he found little dramatic resistance.

“That was what was so challenging about writing the coming out episode, there was no conflict,” said Smith who counts Melrose Place's gay character among his inspirations.

Model and onetime member of The Janice Dickinson Model House, Martin Ritchie shared his inspiring stories about being an out gay man who is also hearing impaired. He remembered coming out at 15 years old and how his mother always told him not to wear pink because it embarrassed her.

Being gay and deaf, Ritchie often, “felt both those worlds were oppressing me at the same time.”

Griffin asked Ritchie if he thought being deaf forced him  into coming out early, and he said yes,.

“I’m already part of a minority,” he explained, “So I felt like ok, there’s no point in hiding anymore. I think I probably would have come out at an older age if I was a hearing person.”

Ritchie said he is most often asked, “Did you become gay first or deaf first?” to which his reply is a simple, “Of course I was born that way, both ways.”

Also present on the panel was the writer, producer, and two male leads, Ryan Kelley and Scott Bailey, from Lifetime's Prayers for Bobby.

Scott Bailey, who played Bobby’s boyfriend David in the film, shared how he was often asked in the press if he was at all worried about taking on a gay roll. The cute and well-spoken actor replied, “Why the hell would I be worried about it?”

“I’ve done hundreds of episodes of TV,” the former Guiding Light cast member said. “I played the heck out of hetero, I don’t how many times I’ve been married, had affairs… but this is the most meaningful role I have ever played,” he said of his role in Prayers for Bobby. “It changed how I feel, it was viscerally important.”

Bailey says he hadn’t had many experiences with the LGBT community growing up in the Midwest, citing Liberace and The Bird Cage as his cultural references growing up.

“And now they can watch this film,” Bailey marveled upon reflection about the film. “And this is their image... And my relatives called me and said ‘wow, I get it, thank you for telling this story’ and I feel honored that I get to be a part of it.”

“Welcome to the gay mafia,” ally Griffin teased.

As a special surprise, the evening ended with the trailer for the upcoming Degrassi movie starring Ruggiero and he along with the stars of Greek stayed after for a private meet and greet with young people who attended the event with the LGBT youth charity LifeWorks.

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