{"id":2556,"date":"2025-01-15T11:45:21","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T11:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-gaystarnewscouk.gmg-staging.link\/?p=2556"},"modified":"2025-01-20T09:41:58","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T09:41:58","slug":"luke-evans-growing-up-gay-as-a-jehovahs-witness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev-gaystarnewscouk.gmg-staging.link\/index.php\/2025\/01\/15\/luke-evans-growing-up-gay-as-a-jehovahs-witness\/","title":{"rendered":"WATCH: Luke Evans, Growing Up Gay As A Jehovah&#8217;s Witness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Luke Evans is known as an action movie superstar with roles in \u2018The Hobbit\u2019, \u2018Fast &amp; Furious\u2019 and \u2018Dracula Untold\u2019. But he started life in a small Welsh town as part of the Jehovah\u2019s Witness church. Being Gay was prohibited under the rules of his strict religious upbringing, but his sexuality became harder and harder to ignore, and he had no one to turn to for help. After speaking to the Samaritans and realising he didn\u2019t want to be \u2018fixed\u2019, he embarked on an incredible journey full of bravery and bizarre happenstance, finding a theatre and arts community through the older partner he was living with in London.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this emotional and candid conversation with Jack Guinness for the Gay Star News podcast Queerphoria, Luke discusses how he overcame severe bullying and religious trauma with Pride and community, inspired by his top three Queer cultural moments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch the full Queerphoria episode here!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/greencastlemediagroup.bbvms.com\/p\/joe_uk_player\/c\/6088958.js\"  async=\"true\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>Luke Evans\u2019 new book, \u2018Boy From The Valleys: My Unexpected Journey\u2019, is out now from Penguin.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8216;Queerphoria&#8217; is a Gay Star News podcast, hosted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jackguinness\/\">Jack Guinness<\/a>. Subscribe and listen to previous episodes on <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/0c3MJLDA1vwz7Mh6U5Wn1e\">Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Follow Luke Evans on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thereallukeevans\/?hl=en\">Instagram<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018I no longer needed to lie or hide who I was.\u2019 Join host Jack Guinness in conversation with Luke Evans on Gay Star News&#8217; &#8216;Queerphoria&#8217; podcast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20,144],"tags":[143,48,142,93,141,66,140,108,36,21,107],"class_list":["post-2556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-interview","category-video","tag-beauty-and-the-beast","tag-community","tag-dracula","tag-gay","tag-jehovahs-witness","tag-lgbtq-news","tag-luke-evans","tag-podcast","tag-pride","tag-queer","tag-queerphoria"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.5 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - 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