In what has been seen as a historic move, Britain’s Prince William said he would “fully support” his children if they were to come out LGBT — and not just in a loving way, but also in an approving way.
According to HuffPost, Prince William made his comments while making a historic visit to the Albert Kennedy Trust (AKT), a charity for homeless LGBT youths, the first time ever anyone in the royal family has done so.
“If your child one day in the future said, ‘Oh I’m gay, oh I’m lesbian,’ whatever, how would you react,” a man asked Prince William, according to the Daily Mail.
“Absolutely fine by me,” said Prince William and only worried of the “backlash” that might ensue particularly regarding the roles they would fill in the royal family.
“I’d fully support whatever decisions they make,” he said. “It worries me how many barriers, persecution, and hate they’d face. But that’s for all of us to try and correct.”
“The one thing I’d be worried about is how they — particularly the roles my children fill — is how that is going to be interpreted and seen,” Prince William said. “It worries me, not because of them being gay, it worries me as to how everyone else will react and perceive it and then the pressure is then on them.”
According to The Telegraph, one of the young people expressed hope that the future king would support the LGBT community so strongly.
“To hear him say ‘I’d support my own children if they were in the LGBT community’ was great, and to hear how much awareness he has of how difficult things are, and the awareness he has of the suicide issue, which is a massive, massive issue for the community,” the person said. “To know that someone that important has your back is huge.”
Following Prince William’s visit, the charity’s openly gay chief executive Tom Sigswort said the visit sends a message to the whole of society that “we need to empower LGBT people.”
“I was incredibly impressed. I was first impressed by his level of knowledge already but his empathy and appreciation of the struggles and challenges faced by LGBT people was incredible to me,” Sigswort said. “And just his willingness to learn from the young people, his willingness to challenge his own perceptions and his willingness to come out in support of LGBT people in such a personal way as to refer to his children — that will make a massive difference.”
“I was personally rejected by my mum, and the idea that the future monarch is saying they would support their children if they came out as LGBT is a message to the whole of society really, a message that we need to support and we need to empower LGBT people,” he continued.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle also recently expressed support for the LGBT community during Pride Month. “We stand with you and support you. Because it’s very simple: Love is love,” the couple said on their official Instagram account.