Cole supports anti-bullying after 'gay' taunts

Brendan Cole

A straight Kiwi-born professional dancer has signed up to an anti-bullying campaign because of his experiences of being taunted as gay during his childhood.

Brendan Cole, who is now a UK-based star of the hit TV series Strictly Come Dancing, says that because he wasn't interested much in rugby and preferred dancing he was singled out for anti-gay bullying at his all-boys school in Christchurch. 

He says the taunts followed him into the workplace when he became a builder.

Cole, 34, left New Zealand at age 19 and has become one of the world's highest paid ballroom dancers. He says he has never forgotten the bullying he received when he was perceived to be gay so has now signed on as an ambassador for the UK-based charity Act Against Bullying.


Posted in: New Zealand Daily News
By GayNZ.com Daily News staff