Prince William says he’d be ‘absolutely fine’ if kids George, Charlotte or Louis came out as LGBTQ
The British royal family has never been known to be on the leading edge of embracing social change, but that appears to be changing under the younger generation of royals, led by Prince William, the future king.
At an event Wednesday, William, the Duke of Cambridge, said he would fully support any of his three children if they came out as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, Us Weekly reported.
“I’ve been giving that some thought recently,” he said while visiting the Albert Kennedy Trust, a London organization that serves youths forced into homelessness because of their sexuality. “I think you really don’t start thinking about that until you are a parent, and I think — obviously, absolutely fine by me.”
William and his wife, Kate Middleton, are parents of Prince George, 5; Princess Charlotte, 4; and Prince Louis, 14 months. William admitted that he would mostly worry that his children could face heightened scrutiny over their sexuality because he is the future head of state and they are heirs to the British throne.
“The one thing I’d be worried about is how — particularly (with) the roles my children fill — that is going to be interpreted and seen,” he said.
William also explained that he and Kate were preparing for various possibilities when it comes to their children and their futures. He said that building a foundation of communication with them is key.
“Catherine and I have been doing a lot of talking about it to make sure they were prepared,” he said. “I think communication is so important with everything. In order to help understand it you’ve got to talk a lot about stuff and … how to support each other and how to go through the process.”
William’s belief that parents shouldn’t turn their backs on their LGBTQ children comes nearly a year after the royal family celebrated its “first-ever” same sex-marriage, the Washington Post reported. In September, Lord Ivar Mountbatten, a third cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, married longtime partner James Coyle in a small but elegant ceremony.
While Mountbatten may only be considered a “junior royal,” the fact that the wedding took place openly signaled that the royal family has given its stamp of approval to same-sex marriage, a historian told the Washington Post.
“This marriage gives this wider perception of the royal family encouraging everyone to be accepted,” said Carolyn Harris, historian and author of “Raising Royalty: 1000 Years of Royal Parenting.”
Of course, the marriage between Mountbatten and Coyle is certainly not the first same-sex relationship in the history of the British monarchy. But men or women in those relationships tended to keep them private, out of fear of political and societal repercussions, the Post added.
Still, historians have found enough evidence to speculate about the same-sex attractions of different monarchs over the centuries, including: King Edward II, who ruled from 1307 to 1327; King James I, who ruled over England in the 17th century after the death of Elizabeth I; and Queen Anne, whose close friendship with Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, was the subject of last year’s Academy Award-winning film “The Favourite,” starring Olivia Coleman and Rachel Weisz.
More recently, Queen Elizabeth II pledged this past summer in her speech at the State Opening of Parliament that her government would “tackle the gender pay gap and discrimination against people on the basis of their race, faith, gender, disability, or sexual orientation,” Town and Country reported.
Like William, Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, have spoken out in support of the LGBTQ community, Town and Country added.
At a Commonwealth Youth Forum in 2018, the new Duchess of Sussex reportedly said that LGBTQ rights are “a basic human rights issue, not one about sexuality,” according to Jacob Thomas, who was at the forum to receive the Queen’s Young Leaders award for helping to reduce the suicide rate within the LBGTQ community in Australia.