One of science fiction’s most beloved sons, Zachary Quinto, who starred as the Vulcan Spock in 2009’s Star Trek, has publicly announced that he’s gay, and his declaration is hitting a positive note with fans, inspiring others to come out as well.

The actor, who also had a major role on NBC’s Heroes and is currently on FX’s American Horror Story, revealed his homosexuality to New York magazine in an article published this weekend. While Quinto previously avoided talking about his sexual orientation in the press, the actor made a conscious decision to refer to himself as “a gay man” several times during the NY Mag interview.

After the NY Mag article went up, Quinto took to his own blog to explain that finding out that gay teen Jamey Rodemeyer had committed suicide after years of being bullied is what prompted him to come out about his own sexuality.

Since the news, the actor has received massive support from fans. Yesterday, the Quinto posted about it via his Twitter account.

In a nice little twist, this morning while reporting the news of Quinto’s revelation, ABC’s World News Now anchor Dan Kloeffler also revealed he’s gay and joked about his interest in the actor. [Awesome!] While he’s been out to his friends, family, and co-workers for years, Kloeffler never mentioned his sexuality on air til today.

You can watch the video of Kloeffler here below.

On his own blog, the news anchor explained that he was inspired by Quinto’s announcement and felt compelled to reveal that he’s homosexual on-air for the same reasons Quinto did.

Kudos to Zachary Quinto and to Dan Kloeffler! Hopefully this will inspire others to come out who have felt that they have to hide their sexuality. This isn’t the cookie-cutter ways of the 1950s and people shouldn’t have to live in fear of people finding out they are are homosexual. Gay teens should not be bullied about it and definitely not to the extent where they feel their only escape from it is to end their own life. It’s sad, it’s tragic, and it should not be in this day and age. While it’s obviously a difficult choice to make to come out in public (and to your friends and loved ones), it’s a brave thing to do, as we all know there’s still discrimination to be faced. So, to those people who do come out, I say congratulations and bravo! To those people who aren’t ready to do so yet, stay strong and do it when you’re ready, but don’t ever let anyone make you feel that you are less than or that your life isn’t worth living. There are many others out there like you — you are not alone.

Ok, had to get that out. When I read the article this weekend where Quinto referred to himself as “a gay man,” my first reaction was “Good for you, man, bravo!” Quinto is one of my favorite actors of this generation and as great fan of all things Trek, he’s basically got a fan in me for life. Hearing him come out, I felt relief for him that he didn’t have to hide it anymore. But I didn’t think to write a “Hey, look, Spock is gay” type of story here because, well, I don’t think I’ve ever written anything like that before here. To me, someone referring to themselves as gay is like me referring to myself as a woman or as an Italian — it’s what I am, plain and simple, it’s not “news” per se. I mean, yeah, good on him (as I think it’s obvious that I support the gay community — and I always have, I don’t need to get into the discrimination I’ve faced from haters because of my support), nobody should have to live in the closet or hide who they are. Plus, it seemed like such a gossip rap thing to write. But then when I read of the reasons WHY he decided to come out now — that bullying of gay teens was so prevalent — and then when I saw it inspired Kloeffler to come out on-air, I felt like that’s news right there. That’s something to write about, something to comment on, something to spread to the hundreds of thousands of Geeks of Doom readers. I’m hoping their revelations inspire more people to come out as well, or at least know that they’re not alone. Quinto already had the scifi and geek world on his side thanks to his iconic roles, so perhaps his announcement will encourage those fans to be more accepting knowing a sci-fi icon they love and admire is gay.

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