Sam Smith defends his ‘first gay Oscar winner’ mistake

Sam Smith has spoken out on Twitter in defence of his Oscars’ acceptance speech in which he claimed to be “the first openly gay man to win an Oscar”.

The British singer won the Best Original Song award for his Bond song 'Writing's On The Wall'.
Accepting the award with his co-writer Jimmy Napes, Smith said: "I read an article that said no openly gay man had ever won an Oscar, and if this is the case, I want to dedicate this to the LGBT community all around the world."

"I stand here tonight as a proud gay man and I hope we can all stand together as equals one day," he continued during his speech.

Smith mistakenly had been lead to believe that no openly gay man had won an Oscar.

In fact, many gay actors, screenwriters, directors and musicians have won Oscars over the years.
Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black who won an Oscar for his work on 2009's Milk is just one example who Smith overlooked and later apologised to.

Responding to criticism over his comments, Smith took to Twitter:

"Second openly gay man to win an Oscar or third or fourth or 100th, It wasn't my point... My point was to shine some light on the LGBT community who I love so dearly".

Check out the Oscar winner's tweets below: