Alex Gede and Marcus St Cyr first crossed paths as “ugly goblins” on the set of Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power Season Two, but quickly realized they shared more than just prosthetics. “For some reason we managed to find all the gays. Every day when we were on set it was just the gays were together,” Alex recalls with a laugh.
Their bond was cemented by their shared creative ambitions. Both men are actors, models, and entrepreneurs on similar paths.
Marcus, who grew up in Wandsworth, London, UK, is also a poet and author of Conversations With A Celestial Being, which he describes as being “about being black, gay, queer and exploring human connections”.
Alex, meanwhile, grew up in Port Harcourt, a large city in the south of Nigeria, before moving to Scotland in 2007 for university and later becoming a UK citizen.
While they share a bond over creativity — and being fellow Libras — their journeys to being openly queer highlight the stark differences and shared challenges of queer life across continents and communities.
Losing everything to gain a life
Now the pair are among the stars of our new campaign to tackle hatred and polarisation with storytelling of real LGBTQIA+ friendships. Our message is a simple one: Hate closes, love opens. Live Pride Wide Open.
But in some places, being open about yourself, when you risk a lot of hatred in return, is a challenge. That’s particularly true in Nigeria, where being gay is heavily criminalised and the LGBTQIA+ community faces brutal violence.
For Alex, who now runs the “comfortably sexy” underwear brand Club Seven, the decision to come out came with profound losses, particularly due to his Nigerian background.
Alex came out in 2018. He was the runner-up for Mr Africa International at the time, campaigning with the pageant organisers.
The fallout was immediate: “When I came out, everyone’s calling me. Even the CEO of the pageant called me. He asked ‘Alex, what was going on? Why did you come out?’ Then all my family are calling me and it was a big mess.”
The catalyst for his public honesty was love. “I fell in love. My partner at the time, we were really in love and he is from a very Christian family,” Alex explains.
While Alex initially resisted public displays of affection, his partner posed a challenge: “He was like, ‘If we want this to work, it might be easier if you just come out'”. Alex knew the cost: “I knew, if I came out, I was gonna lose everything because my family is very conservative, very Christian. I knew what was going to happen.”
Despite the losses — which included friends and family members — Alex insists the gain was priceless: “I gained a life. You’re more free. No-one will understand the weight that comes off your shoulders when you come out”.
He noted that spending “most of your life pretending and double checking everything you do before you do it, it’s tiring”.
He adds: “It also brought out my creative side as well, because you now have more space to think and be yourself and express yourself.”
Black, gay, and open
Even in the UK, where Marcus grew up, navigating the intersecting identities of being queer and a person of colour presents its own challenges. He says it isn’t easy being a queer person who’s also a person of colour.
Marcus says. “When I came out to my mum, she wasn’t very happy with it. But then after a few years, she kind grew to accept the fact that I’m gay. I had a boyfriend at the time and she ended up liking my boyfriend so that helped.”
For Marcus, an only child, his chosen queer friends are crucial: “They’re more like my family. They’re like an extended brothers and sisters that I didn’t have growing up.”
Both men champion the campaign’s theme of being open, stressing the importance of that freedom.
“The ability to be free is priceless,” Alex asserts.
This openness allows him to be a beacon for others, especially those back home: “I get a lot of DMS from people from Nigeria on my social media every day, talking about their experiences and how they are hiding and how they are always looking behind or being attacked. It’s priceless being free and being able to just express yourself and be yourself.”
For Marcus, openness fuels his professional life: “I feel like with being a creative and trying to start a business being free and open allows for authenticity in your work. Without that, are doing your art from being in a box.”
He recalls being stopped in Amsterdam as he was attending a Beyoncé concert wearing a skirt and fishnets. A stranger thanked him for giving them “the encouragement to wear things that I want to wear”.
Healing the world through conversation
Ultimately, their shared goal extends beyond their own freedom; it’s about shifting the global climate towards acceptance.
“I think we’re trying to make the world a better place by letting everyone understand we’re all humans at the end of the day and accept people for who they are and express love, even if you don’t understand it,” Alex states.
Marcus believes the most powerful tool for ending hatred is simply conversation and so embraces the idea of our “Open” campaign as a way to bridge divides and end polarisation.
“For me, I feel that if the world came from a place of curiosity and was more open to learning other people’s way of living, there’ll be less hate,” he explains.
His suggestion is straightforward: “Sit down and have a conversation with someone that you wouldn’t even expect to be in the same room as. Just have a coffee and a chat. Get to know their story and they get to know your story. I feel like the world will heal a lot quicker if people did stuff like that.”
Alex agrees, pointing out that fear is often rooted in the unknown: “Most people are scared of things, they don’t know, or they don’t understand. But if you ask the right questions and you are not afraid to learn then you can understand these things.”
Live Pride Wide Open
You can see the Live Pride Wide Open campaign throughout June 2026 on JCDecaux outdoor screens around the UK and at Outernet in Tottenham Court Road, London. Read the stories behind the images on our Pride Wide Open page. And if you can, please make a donation so we can keep tackling hatred and promoting a world where all LGBTQIA+ people can thrive.
