Miriam Margolyes Makes Vogue Cover Debut: I Like Being Gay

British-Australian actress Miriam Margolyes posed nude for her Vogue cover debut and declared she “would never be straight for anything” 

Eighty-two-year-old Margolyes said that she’s “never had any shame about being gay”. 

Margolyes portrayed Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter film series and has amassed an impressive career, starring in films including Romeo and Juliet (1996), The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), and worked as a voice artist for projects like James and the Giant Peach (1997) and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (2010). 

Margolyes spoke to Vogue in an accompanying interview and shared her delight of speaking candidly on topics that typically fall under the ‘taboo’ bracket. Topics like sex, money, nudity, and her own personal insecurities. The BAFTA-award-winning actress told Vogue that she believed it was important to “not be afraid of who you are”. 

‘Gay People Are Lucky’

“We’re all so insecure. People are frightened such a lot of the time and what I’ve always tried to do is to make people feel more relaxed, make people feel good about themselves, and just try and lessen the torture for people a bit,” Margolyes said. 

When Margolyes came out as lesbian in 1966, homosexuality was illegal in the United Kingdom. Although there was no specific legislation that criminalised same-sex relationships between women at the time, it was an issue that remained highly stigmatised in society and the actress personally witnessed the HIV crisis during the 1980s, where 34 of her friends died. 

Despite the taboo nature of discussing sexuality, Margolyes said “never had any shame about being gay”. Margolyes told British Vogue that she knew “it wasn’t criminal because it was me. I couldn’t be criminal.”

“I think gay people are very lucky because we are not conventional, we are a group slightly apart. It gives us an edge”, she added. 

‘I Wanted My Cake And Eat It Too’

Margolyes met her partner, Heather while being cast in a BBC radio drama and the couple have been together for 54 years. Though they have never lived together, with Heather residing in Amsterdam, the actress stated that this dynamic helped both of them lead their own lives “without diminishing them”. 

“I didn’t want her to have to give up anything. And I didn’t want to give up anything. I wanted my cake and I wanted to eat it too. And so far, it’s worked”, she said. 

When asked her thoughts on the state of affairs regarding LGBTQI rights in the UK, Margolyes criticised the increasingly anti-LGBTQI current of politics in the government and decried a “moral slide in England” in the “deep pit of iniquity”. 

In the 1980s, under Margaret Thatcher’s conservative government, the introduction of Section 28 prohibited the “promotion of homosexuality” by local authorities and brought on an unprecedented attack on the rights of LGBTQI people in the UK. Furthermore, the conservative government took advantage of the stigmatisation of gay and bisexual men in the 1980s as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 

The actress told British Vogue that she thought gay people were “good artists” and “good musicians”, and she loved being part of the LGBTQI community. “I like being gay. I wouldn’t want to be straight for anything,” she added.