U.S. Secretary of Labor Perez singles out 'Will & Grace'

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Actress Ellen Page came out at Time to Thrive, an LGBT youth conference. “I’m tired of hiding,” she said onstage. “I’m tired of lying by omission.” (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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“Well, in all honesty, when you talk about ‘the gay community,’ you are talking about MY community,” the “Game of Thrones” actor confirmed when asked about his large following among “bears” during an interview with fan blog Winter Is Coming in March 2014. (Jerod Harris / Getty Images for Wired)

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The “30 Rock” actor came out in a November 2013 interview with Out magazine.

“I just celebrated my nine-year anniversary with my partner,” he said. “It feels like a nice time to be celebrating something like that, especially on the heels of the DOMA and Prop. 8 decisions.” (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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The actor said he hid his orientation because of his upbringing. “I went to school in the Bronx. I learned to constantly try to cover up the fact that I was gay. That facade of being somebody I’m really not just to protect myself definitely helped with acting,” he told Out magazine in 2011. (Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images for NAACP)

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Nineteen-year-old British Olympic diving bronze medalist Tom Daley revealed through a YouTube video that he’s in a relationship with a man and has been since spring. (Clive Rose / Getty Images)

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“Touch” actress Maria Bello took to the pages of the New York Times in December 2013 to write an article headlined “Coming Out as a Modern Family,” revealing the conversation she had with her son that led her to reveal her relationship with another woman, Clare. (Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez / AFP/Getty Images)

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In a Facebook message to mark the end of 2013 and her recovery from a transplant for a rare blood disorder, “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts came out as a lesbian by thanking her “long time girlfriend, Amber,” among others. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Well, gawwwly! “Gomer Pyle, USMC” and “The Andy Griffith Show” star Jim Nabors married his longtime partner, Stan Cadwallader, in Seattle in January. The relationship was never a secret, but the sitcom star had not come out publicly before. (Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times)

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Actor Victor Garber confirmed his sexual orientation in a didn’t-everyone-know-already way early in January 2013. In an April 2012 issue of Canadian magazine FYI Garber had mentioned his 13-year-relationship with partner Rainier Andreesen was one of his proudest achievements. (Robin Marchant / Getty Images)

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Until July, Anderson Cooper had never publicly confirmed he was gay, but he’d never denied it, either. Cooper’s sexual orientation has long been an open secret, but it took an Entertainment Weekly cover story about gay celebrities to prompt the newsman to finally come out. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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The New York Times broke the story quietly with one understated sentence. “The Normal Heart,” it read, “resonated with him on a few levels: Mr. Parsons is gay and in a 10-year relationship, and working with an ensemble again was like nourishment, [Parsons] said.” (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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Zachary Quinto came out to New York magazine, taking public ownership of his sexuality with the words “as a gay man.” (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Actor Sean Maher came out to Entertainment Weekly in September 2011, saying,”This is my coming out ball. I’ve been dying to do this.” (Araya Diaz/Getty Images)

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Jonathan Knight of New Kids on the Block, far right, came out as gay in 2011 when ‘80s songstress Tiffany said he was gay on the Bravo TV show “Watch What Happens: Live.” Knight responded on the band’s website, saying he is proud to be gay and has been open about it for more than 20 years. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

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Country singer Chely Wright was outed by online magazine Queerty, which speculated Wright would come out the day after the release of her new album and memoir in 2010. Wright’s journey is examined in the documentary “Chely Wright: Wish Me Away.” (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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British rapper Lady Sovereign came out in an April 2010 interview with Diva magazine. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Ricky Martin ended years of media speculation when he published an open letter in Spanish and English to fans on his personal website. (Eric Jamison / Invision/AP)

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“Glee” star Chris Colfer came out to an “Access Hollywood” reporter in an interview in 2009. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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Sean Hayes used the Advocate to break the news in a 2010 cover story. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Rolling Stone magazine broke the news in 2009. Adam Lambert, the “American Idol” star, confirmed what many had been thinking, saying, ‘’I don’t think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear that I’m gay.” (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times )

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Meredith Baxter told Matt Lauer of the “Today” show that she didn’t want “some tabloid to take a story and make it up. ... So I wanted it to be in my own words.” ( Valerie Macon / Getty Images)

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Actress Wanda Sykes announced to a crowd she was gay at a same-sex marriage rally in Las Vegas in 2008. Sykes said she felt personally attacked by California’s Proposition 8 that banned gay marriage, according to a New York Times article on the event. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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People magazine broke the news about this “American Idol” star, who posed on its cover with his newborn child. “I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things,” he said. (Charles Sykes / Invision/AP)

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David Hyde Pierce’s sexual orientation became public when the Associated Press reported that he moved to Los Angeles in the 1990s with his partner, Brian Hargrove. (Paul Morse / Los Angeles Times)

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Bloc Party musician Kele Okereke gave several interviews with gay-oriented magazines until more openly discussing his sexuality during a 2007 interview with the Guardian. ( Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

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Neil Patrick Harris came out with a statement to People magazine as “a very content gay man living [his] life to the fullest,” saying rather than ignore speculation into his private life, he wanted to tell the public the truth. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

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In a 2004 interview Cynthia Nixon told the New York Daily News she had “nothing to hide” about her relationships with women. ( Laura Cavanaugh / Getty Images)

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Rosie O’Donnell came out during a comedy routine at a 2002 ovarian cancer benefit. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

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The REM lead man, musician Michael Stipe, ended years of public speculation when he told Time magazine he was a “queer artist” during a May 2001 interview. Prior to coming out he said he “was being made to be a coward about it,” and was ready to tell the public the truth about his sexuality. (Bryan Chan / Los Angeles Times)

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Ellen DeGeneres came out publicly with a Time magazine cover in April 1997. The headline: “Yep, I’m gay.” (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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Musician Melissa Etheridge announced she was a lesbian during the January 1993 Triangle Ball — a gay and lesbian gala that celebrated the first inauguration of President Clinton. (Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP )

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Musician k.d. lang came out in 1992 to Advocate magazine. “There are so many different opinions on how to gain acceptance,” she said. “I don’t want to hurt my mother by coming out in the press. But at the same time I don’t want to hurt [gay] culture, and it’s like — what do you do?” (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Rupert Everett was openly gay early in his career, a decision he later told the Guardian may have hurt his burgeoning career. “It’s not very easy,” he said. “And, honestly, I would not advise any actor necessarily, if he was really thinking of his career, to come out.” (Evan Agostini / Getty Images)

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Actor Ian McKellen discussed his sexual orientation for the first time in 1988 on BBC Radio 3 when discussing the logic of a British bill that prohibited the “promotion of homosexuality.” (Jennifer S. Altman / For The Times)

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Musician Elton John first came out as bisexual during a Rolling Stone “Elton John: It’s Lonely at the Top” interview in 1976. It wasn’t until after his second divorce in 1988 that he told Rolling Stone he was comfortable being a gay man. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

By Richard Verrier

Sept. 28, 2013 12:32 PM PT

The TV sitcom “Will & Grace” got a shout-out from U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez on Saturday morning.

In a speech at the inaugural SAG-AFTRA National Convention, Perez praised the newly formed union for helping to sway public opinion in support of the rights of the gay and lesbian community in such shows as the NBC comedy “Will & Grace.”

“When I see the work you have done in the industry to address issues of equality, I’m so grateful to you,’’ Perez told crowd of more than 350 delegates gathered at the J.W. Marriott at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles. “Vice President Joe Biden was right when he pointed out, we wouldn’t gotten so far without ‘Will & Grace.’”

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Perez also cited a recent episode of the TV series “Modern Family.” “By the way, I missed it...but I think Mitchell and Cam (stars of TV series “Modern Family”) got engaged on prime time pretty recently,” he said. “I did a video with my department employees called it gets better. And I’m telling you, as a result of your work, it indeed has gotten better.”

The topic of equal rights has been important for SAG-AFTRA. A study released Friday at the convention found that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender actors continue to face discrimination when looking for work, though opportunities are increasing. About a third of those who responded to the survey by UCLA’s Williams Institute and the entertainment union said that directors, casting directors and producers may be biased against LGBT performers.

Perez congratulated the union members for their decision to form SAG-AFTRA in spring, when the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists voted to merge, creating the largest entertainment union in Hollywood with more than 165,000 members.

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“There’s an old saying there is strength in numbers,’’ Perez said. “As you embark on this remarkable journey together as one, the fact of the matter is, people can’t play you off against each other anymore-- that’s really important.”

Perez also called on union members to help sell the Affordable Care Act. The Obama administration is seeking help from artists and entertainers to promote the healthcare law and get at least 7 million Americans enrolled in the next six months. But House Republicans are attempting to halt the healthcare law as a condition for keeping the government funded beyond a midnight Monday deadline.

“We need your help to get the word out and to counter the misinformation that is out there,” he said.

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