It’s almost a rite of passage in Hollywood that rumours start to circulate that you’re gay. Indeed it’s believed some young stars (or at least their management) foster the rumours in the hope it’ll help their career. Rumours have swirled around George Clooney for years, largely based around the fact that while he’s had a string of beautiful girlfriends, he’s never gotten married.

Ahead of his one night only appearance in a staged reading of Dustin Lance Black’s play 8, (about the attempts to get Prop 8, which banned gay marriage in California, overturned) he’s been talking to The Advocate, and touched on the fact a lot of people want to think he’s gay.

He says, ‘I think it’s funny, but the last thing you’ll ever see me do is jump up and down, saying, “These are lies!” That would be unfair and unkind to my good friends in the gay community. I’m not going to let anyone make it seem like being gay is a bad thing. My private life is private, and I’m very happy in it. Who does it hurt if someone thinks I’m gay? I’ll be long dead and there will still be people who say I was gay. I don’t give a shit.”

He also talks about why he got involved in the fight for marriage equality, saying ‘It’s always been this albatross that stood out to me as the final leg of the civil rights movement. It really came to a head during the 2004 elections, when it was used as a wedge issue, and it was a very effective tool to keep the Republicans in office and to avoid talking about other issues. Well before Prop. 8, I’ve made the point that every time we’ve stood against equality, we’ve been on the wrong side of history. It’s the same kind of argument they made when they didn’t want blacks to serve in the military, or when they didn’t want blacks to marry whites. One day the marriage equality fight will look as archaic as George Wallace standing on the University of Alabama steps keeping James Hood from attending college because he was black. People will be embarrassed to have been on the wrong side. So it’s encouraging to know that this too will seem like such a silly argument to our next generation. There are even a lot of young conservatives today for whom marriage equality isn’t an issue. It always takes government an extra generation to catch up to the people.’

As for his bromance with Brad Pitt, he comments, ‘People think Brad and I hang out all the time, but the truth is that we see each other very rarely, maybe a couple times a year. I’ve had great fun spending time with my friend again over the awards season. Not only do I enjoy him as a person and respect his talent, but I also love what he does in the world. I can’t speak highly enough about how hard he works at making the world better. I’m very proud to call him my friend.

It’s an interesting interview, so take a look.