Milo Ventimiglia talked to Advocate magazine about playing gay characters, his gay fan base, and his take on the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.Advocate: When did you first realize you had gay fans?
Milo Ventimiglia: It was way before Heroes or Gilmore Girls. I was about 19 or 20 years old. I'd done a short film when I was 18 called Must Be the Music, where I played a gay teenager. I was shopping with my mom and dad one weekend, and these two gay guys came up and said they'd seen the film at a film festival and they just thought I was great. That was actually the very first time I'd ever been recognized for anything. I'm glad that it was my first meeting with a fan, because it wasn't the standard 14-year-old girl chasing me down; it was men who were fans of the work. That was cool.
A: You recently visited our troops overseas on a USO tour. What's your take on "don't ask, don't tell"?
MV: When it comes down to it, gay or straight, you're holding a weapon and fighting for our country, so sexuality seems irrelevant. It bothers me that in this day and age people are still looked at differently for having a sexual orientation that isn't in agreement with an old institution such as the military. That being said, I can understand why a gay person in the military would just not want to say anything about it, because it would probably attract unnecessary attention. At the same time, it makes me sad to think that people can't live their life openly, thinking that they won't be accepted.(keep reading)
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