Openly gay actor Chad Allen, formerly of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, returns to television this fall as gay gumshoe detective Donald Strachey. Cable network Here TV's GLBT programming offers a ripping new series based on the crime novels of acclaimed author Richard Stevenson.
The first Strachey offering, Third Man Out, is based on the fourth Stevenson novel and centers on our queer detective's quest to locate the would-be assassins of a prominent gay activist despised for his proclivity of outing closeted gays. This installment, directed by Queer as Folk alumnus Ron Oliver and written by Mark Saltzman, premiered Sept. 2. The next installment, Ice Blues, is also set in upstate New York, though the actual filming will take place in Canada.
David Guarino: You're starring as detective Donald Strachey, a gay hero for a change.
Chad Allen: Absolutely! This time around, instead of going home to the girl, the hero goes home to the guy, and we get our first private eye hero who's gay. He's the first film character I've played who's gay. After 26 years of being in the business, not to mention 10 years of being out, it's so much fun to finally be playing a queer character.
In your opinion, how risky is it to be an openly gay actor in Hollywood today?
I would say if you're interested in playing it safe, then yes, it's still risky. But if you're willing to think outside of the box, and strike out to do something new, I don't think it's risky at all. My career is more interesting and a hell of a lot busier than it's ever been, and my work is better. I've never been comfortable with secrets or living in the closet, so I knew that coming out was the only real option that I had.
What prompted you to come out publicly?
When I was 21, a boy that I was dating sold photos of us kissing together in a swimming pool. He sold them for many thousands of dollars to Globe magazine. I realized that I really had no power because I was living in secret.
Two years later, I'd had a flood of e-mails and letters from young people around the country: "Wow, I heard you might be gay, and I don't want to offend you, but I think I might be gay. I'm alone here in Iowa," or Wisconsin. Getting those letters was the most amazing thing. Those kids were alone, and a lot of them were sad and afraid. I realized a couple of years after the Globe photos incident that I had no interest in a life where anybody held anything over my head, least of all something I had finally realized was the good news about myself: I was gay.
What do you think of the state of the GLBT community in the US today, in light of the anti-gay initiatives that have been popping up all over the place?
No civil rights movement in history has moved as fast or gained so much in a relatively short amount of time, since Stonewall. It's really incredible, when you match this movement against so many others. This is a community that does better when the odds are stacked against it. Facing that plague, building a civil-rights movement in the midst of that kind of loss is extraordinary to me.
What, in your opinion, is the biggest mistake the GLBT community has made in dealing with right-wing religious zealots and their constituents?
I think that we tend, too often out of fear, to want to turn this into good guys and bad guys. While making a film in Panama, I lived and worked closely with some very conservative Christians who clearly did not view me as "the good guy." In many instances I was viewed as a representation of "the enemy." But I learned from that experience what a useless concept that was. I came to work there with pre-conceived notions about who they were and they of me, and that created a bit of an impasse. Then we started to communicate. At the end of the day, we're talking about love. What we need is for everybody to respect — not necessarily believe in — everybody else's beliefs.