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Jane Fonda on why gays relate to her story

Two-time Oscar winner Jane Fonda says in a new interview that she was surprised at how much gay men related to her acclaimed 2004 autobiography My Life So Far.

‘When I wrote my memoir, which I assumed was mostly a woman’s story that would be appreciated by women, what really struck me is how many men – especially gay men – really responded to it,’ Fonda says in the September issue of Out Magazine.

Fonda has been married three times – to director Roger Vadim, politician Tom Hayden and CNN founder Ted Turner - and wrote that she changed herself considerably for each man.

She also had a father, actor Henry Fonda, who was emotionally distant and a mother who committed suicide when Jane was 12.

The actress says she and gay men share ‘that feeling of, “If I’m not perfect, if I’m not what people want me to be, no one will love me. I don’t fit in.”‘

The 76-year-old actress says that’s why she worked with the late activist Harvey Milk in the 1970s.

‘I was kind of a straight activist fort the gay struggle,’ she says.

Fonda has since become more aware of trans issues and wrote about them in her more recent book called Being a Teen.

‘I have a chapter in sexual identities that I think is one of the best chapters,’ she says. ‘It was really important to me and I had a lot of gay friends and trans friends edit for me, because after living in Georgia and seeing the tremendous pain – it’s such a homophobic place – and kids who kill themselves, it was very important to me to get it right.’

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One Remark

  1. I’m glad to hear that Jane is stepping forward to help recognize the struggle of gay teens. To give voice to those that might not otherwise hear of the pain.

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