News feed
Prince William has said he would “fully support” his children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis if they told him they were gay.
Speaking at The Albert Kennedy Trust, an LGBT youth charity in London, the Duke of Cambridge was asked by a man in the audience “If your child one day in the future said: ‘Oh I’m gay, oh I’m lesbian,’ whatever, how would you react?”
William responded he would be “absolutely fine” with it, but feared others would not.
“I think you don’t really start thinking about that until you are a parent, and I think – obviously, absolutely fine by me.”
“The one thing I’d be worried about is how, particularly the roles my children fill, how that is going to be interpreted and seen. So Catherine and I have been doing a lot of talking about it to make sure they were prepared.”
“I wish we lived in a world where it’s really normal and cool, but particularly for my family, and the position that we are in, that’s the bit I am nervous about,” he said.
“It does worry me from a parent point of view. How many barriers you know, hateful words, persecution, all that and discrimination that might come, that’s the bit that really troubles me,” he explained.
“But that’s for all of us to try and help correct and make sure we can put that to the past and not come back to that sort of stuff.”
The statement by Prince William about the three children he shares with Kate Middleton, who are in line to the British throne, is a huge moment for LGBTQ rights.
Such blatant support for the LGBTQ community from the royal family is relatively rare. Although, the Queen’s cousin, Lord Ivar Mountbatten, married his partner James Coyle last year.
William’s words, which have the power to aid in the de-stigmatisation of homosexuality, come during World Pride month. The celebration is this year being held in New York City to mark 50 years since the Stone Wall Riots, considered the beginning of the modern gay rights movement.
