Alan Cumming created an unexpected swirl on the internet this week when he announced he had returned his 2009 British award. He made headlines after his Instagram post saying that he had returned his Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
Cumming was awarded the honor as part of Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday for his exemplary activism work in the LGBTQ+ community.
On Friday, 27 January, the Spykids fam marked his 58th birthday by the act of returning the OBE award. The celebrity took to Instagram to state, “The Queen’s death and the ensuing conversations about the role of monarchy and especially the way the British empire profited at the expense (and death) of indigenous peoples across the world really opened my eyes,”.
“Also, thankfully, times and laws in the US have changed, and the great good the award brought to the LGBTQ+ cause back in 2009 is now less potent than the misgivings I have being associated with the toxicity of empire (OBE stands for Officer of the British Empire).”
Clearing out the reason for his action, he explained, “So I returned my award, explained my reasons and reiterated my great gratitude for being given it in the first place. I’m now back to being plain old Alan Cumming again. Happy birthday to me!”.
The actor and activist reacted to the social media’s reflection on his act to The Hollywood Reporter at Saturday’s AARP Movies for Grownups Awards, where he served as host. , “I didn’t quite expect it to have such an international — I kind of broke the internet yesterday,” Cumming told “I knew there would be a little bit about it obviously but not that much. It was kind of nuts. In Scotland, I was on the cover of all of these newspapers today.”
