Will & Grace's Sean Hayes says he was taught to keep his sexuality secret

Out actor Sean Hayes, who is best known for playing Jack McFarland on the NBC comedy Will & Grace, has said that he was taught to keep his sexuality a secret.

In a cover interview with UK LGBT glossy Attitude, Hayes discussed why he stayed closeted during the show's initial run.

Hayes, whose campy Will & Grace character is gay, came out in 2010, roughly 12 years after the show debuted on NBC.

Hayes said that he was "too scared" to come out earlier.

"It was a scary time," Hayes said. "We got death threats, [people] could find out where I lived, and I was playing a gay character in a big hit show."

"I was too scared. I wasn't looking to be an activist of any kind. I didn't have the courage and the strength at such a young age to speak on behalf of the gay community."

"We were taught by society in the seventies and eighties that being gay was an awful thing ...I was taught to keep it a secret. I was taught to be ashamed of it."

"Time's up in a different way for the gay community to show the world that we're okay with ourselves and I'm done taking care of [other people's] awkwardness around it," he added.

In 2014, Hayes married longtime partner Scott Icenogle, a music producer.