Zachary Quinto, who had avoided publicly discussing his sexual orientation, has acknowledged that he is gay.
"As a gay man, it made me feel like there’s still so much work to be done, and there’s still so many things that need to be looked at and addressed," Quinto told New York magazine, addressing his role several years ago on the HBO miniseries adaptation of "Angels in America."
Rumors have long swirled that Quinto is gay, but the 34-year-old actor had chosen to avoid confronting them.
As recently as last year, he told The New York Times that he did not want "to feed the rumor mill with either substantiation or dismissal."
He told New York magazine, however, that events of the past year had changed his mindset. New York passed marriage equality, but a gay teenager, Jamey Rodemeyer, killed himself after being bullied.
"“And again, as a gay man I look at that and say there’s a hopelessness that surrounds it, but as a human being I look at it and say ‘Why? Where’s this disparity coming from, and why can’t we as a culture and society dig deeper to examine that?’ We’re terrified of facing ourselves," Quinto told the magazine.
Quinto played Spock in the 2009 "Star Trek," and Peter Sullivan in this year's "Margin Call," which he also produced.
He's perhaps best known as villain Syler in the NBC super-power-themed hourlong "Heroes."
