Phillip Schofield: coming out on TV
In 1985, the year Phillip Schofield made his debut on British TV, The Sun reported that a Liverpool publican had banned gay people from his premises, explaining that he didn’t want his customers to “catch something from the glasses”. In 1988, the UK government passed Clause 28, which banned schools from teaching children about “the acceptability of homosexuality”. All of which, said Esther Addley in The Guardian, perhaps goes some way to explaining why Schofield only came out at the age of 57. Last Friday, looking tearful and “agonised”, he took to his own sofa on ITV’s This Morning to tell the world that he was gay. The reaction – in the studio, in the media and on social media – was “overwhelmingly positive”, heartening evidence of how much attitudes have changed since his career began. Touchingly, his wife of 27 years, Stephanie Lowe, and his two grown-up children, praised him for “taking this brave step”.
“Until last week, I barely knew who Phillip Schofield was,” said Simon Kelner in the I newspaper. Now, a few days later, I know all sorts of things about his life, his family, and the sexual preferences that he has kept to himself for decades. “Do I, do we, need to know all this?” Should coming out as gay still be treated as such a big deal, as some kind of “confession”? It’s absurd, said Brendan O’Neill on Spiked. “Brave used to mean going to war. Or risking life and limb for your political beliefs.” Now it seems to mean using your position on daytime TV to tell everyone you’re gay. Schofield’s discovery of his “authentic self” is apparently a matter for great celebration, even though it means “the collapse” of his marriage.
Comments like these show no understanding at all of how debilitating and guilt-ridden life in the closet can be, said Justin Myers in the I newspaper. Of course coming out is “a big deal”; of course it matters. It’s simply not true that “nobody cares”. The day that gay and lesbian people no longer “face abuse just for being who they are is the day it no longer matters. Until then, coming out is important.” Schofield’s declaration “will change minds, open up discussion, shine light in darker corners” – and it should be applauded.