THE POWER OF GAY VISIBILITY

“The most powerful thing you can ever do for someone else is to show them they are not alone. There’s a general rule-of-thumb in my line of work – there is either none of a thing (it does not exist,) there is one of a thing (it is an anomaly), or there’s tons of a thing (it happens all the time throughout the universe). Take life on Earth. If we discover it elsewhere, we would know the universe was full of life.

“So just by being visible and not censoring myself, I’ve reached scores of people who may have felt alone. I’ve received tear-jerking letters from gay scientists thanking me for being so public and open. I’m helping people who may have felt like the anomaly in their world. Seeing someone like me, they realise there just might be lots of people like them and suddenly they aren’t alone at all.”