Actress Camryn Manheim reveals straightphobic hate as she laments her son is not gay

Hollywood actress Camryn Manheim spoke at the Human Rights Campaign's annual National Dinner in Washington, DC and lamented that her son is not gay. She praised fellow actress Marcia Gay Harden for having three children who all claim LGBTQ identities and said that she "always wanted a gay son."

She shared details about her son, that he's into musical theater and has dressed in full drag, but this was not good enough for Manheim, who also wanted him to be sexually attracted to men so that she could attend pro-LGBTQ protests on his behalf.

"I always wanted a gay son," she said. "I did. I love that relationship between gay sons and their mothers. I wanted to be the picket sign-holding mom who would beat the sh*t out of somebody for her kid. I mean, let's just admit it: gay sons are the best, right?" Apparently Manheim thinks less of the relationship mothers have with their straight sons.

"I have photographs of my son in high heels, in full drag. He knows every word to every musical ever written. His fairy godfather, Aaron Walton, is here with us tonight. I mean, truly, I thought I had this f*cking thing locked up, but no, no, he's the only straight guy in his entire musical theater company." Her son Milo is also an actor who starred in Disney Channel's "Zombies," among other credits.

"So when Marcia called me about 10 years ago from her closet, I kid you not. She was in her closet to tell me that her son had come out to her as gay. All I said was, 'Oh my God, you are so f*cking lucky! And about a week later, I was at Marcia's house for dinner when an Amazon package was delivered for her son, and inside, I'm not kidding you, was a pair of thigh-high red patent leather boots, like kinky boots. And I thought, oh come on, now she is just showing off, right?"

Manheim gave the speech by way of introducing Harden, who was on hand to accept the Ally for Equality Award at the Sept. 26 dinner. "For Marcia, of course," Manheim said, "this is deeply personal to her. She has three remarkable children who all align with the LGBTQ+ community."

For years, celebrities and LGBTQ+ people have said that parents who would prefer to have a straight child instead of a gay, lesbian, bisexual, non-binary, or trans one are hateful and bigoted. That has now reversed, and many parents, like Manheim, insist that they would rather have children who are not heterosexual.

The Human Rights Campaign was founded in 1980 and quickly became an advocacy group for legalizing gay marriage. When they achieved that goal with the Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, they switched primarily to trans issues. In 2025, their annual revenue was over $50 million, and of that, they spend $36 million on program services.