Sam Smith Did Not Do His Research About Gay Oscar Winners

After winning a surprise Best Original Song trophy for “Writing’s On the Wall” from Spectre, Sam Smith took the stage to accept and proceeded to stick his foot directly in his mouth. In a well-intentioned but nonetheless dunderheaded moment, Smith continued with the theme of the evening: the need for diversity. Only this time for gay Oscar winners. Said Smith:

I read an article a few months ago by Sir Ian McKellan, and he said that no openly gay man had ever won an Oscar. And if this is the case, even if it isn’t the case, I wanna dedicate this to the LGBT community all around the world. I stand here tonight as a proud gay man, and I hope we can all stand together as equals one day.

You can’t argue with the last sentence, and there’s something to be applauded for gay men being out and proud and loud about it from awards-show podiums. But there is the matter of that Ian McKellen quote. It’s likely that Smith was referring to this quote that McKellen gave The Guardian: “No openly gay man has ever won the Oscar; I wonder if that is prejudice or chance.” McKellen was referring to acting Oscars, as he went on to reference Tom Hanks, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Sean Penn all winning Oscars for playing gay men.

McKellen’s headline-making quote got a bit lost in translation, though, and by the time Smith spoke about it on that Oscar stage, all context was lost. And while Smith added the caveat that he might be wrong, just a quick Google search might’ve helped him avoid embarrassment altogether. At the very least he’d have been reminded of Dustin Lance Black, out gay Oscar winner for writing Milk. Or Alan Ball for writing American Beauty. Or Elton John for writing songs for The Lion King.

While it’s true that there’s a lot of gray area surrounding whether certain actors from earlier eras were officially out or not, Smith’s quote unintentionally shortchanged the (too few, but significant) Oscar winners who were out long before Smith.