Actor Tom Arnold was devastated when his younger brother revealed he was gay and dating a black man because he feared he'd be terrorised in his native Iowa.

The TRUE LIES star grew up knowing there was something different about his sibling, but felt he'd always welcome the fact he was gay until his brother actually confessed.

He recalls, "I wasn't a homophobe. I have a younger brother; I'm the oldest of seven and I knew he was gay. We lived in Iowa and then I moved out to Los Angeles and kept talking to him, I said, 'CHRIS just tell me. It's cool because I have a lot of gay friends.'

"He wouldn't come out with it and then one time he came to a set with a guy and they had shorts on and the guy put his hand on my brother's leg and he didn't take it off.

"I remember my heart sank even though I said, 'I'm hip, and I'm cool.' It sank because I was scared that immediately people were going to be mean to him back in our small town and his life was going to be harder.

"Plus his boyfriend was black, so when he went back to Iowa with a black, gay boyfriend they were so confused that people just embraced him."

15/07/2005 02:54