Lance Bass Talks New Documentary and the Struggles He Still Faces as Openly Gay Man
— -- 'N Sync star Lance Bass couldn't be happier these days.
He's less than one month away from marrying the love of his life, Michael Turchin, on Dec. 20, but the author, host and singer said he still deals with verbal abuse for being openly gay.
"Every day, I hear some idiot calling me f** or threatening to kill me, and that's what you have to live with when there's still such a negative look at the LGBT community," Bass told ABC News. "It's just sad what people are brainwashed into thinking. But definitely times are changing. ... Look, Mississippi might be on the brink of legalizing gay marriage. I would never have thought in 2014 that would be the case."
Bass, 35, grew up in Mississippi and, as a kid, said he heard the rumblings of other children being sent off to special schools, but he and others in the community just assumed those kids were bad.
"But half the time it's because they were gay," Bass said.
Bass spoke to ABC News to promote his newest title -- executive producer on a documentary, "Kidnapped for Christ," about schools using so-called "gay conversion therapy" to "pray the gay away," he said.
"When the project came to me, I'd heard of these teen reform schools and what they were doing to the kids, especially the gay kids," Bass said. "When I really learned what these schools were doing ... I couldn't believe I didn't know."
He added, "I couldn't imagine my parents sending me off to a place like that, but I didn't come out of the closet 'til way later. If I were in junior high or high school, I don't know what would have happened. I don't know what my church would have convinced my parents to do. I would hope they would not go to that extreme. But back then, I have no idea. ... I'm just so happy [that] my parents today are very supportive."
In fact, Bass said, once he came out to his parents, they researched and read everything they could about the LGBT community to support their son.
"It's just all about educating," he said. "That's all we can do, just start the dialogue and get people talking. Once people learn about this subject and LGBT, it changes people's mind for the better. It's not like when people learn about this subject, they go deeper into believing this [stuff]."
Aside from desperately trying to make effective change where it counts, Bass is in the throes of wedding planning, which helps balance things out.
E! will be broadcasting the wedding sometime early next year and Bass couldn't be prouder to show off his love to the world.
"The network is doing the first celebrity, gay wedding, which is such an honor to be a part of," he said. "It's almost 2015, and we are just now having the first gay wedding special on television. As a little kid from Mississippi, I would have loved to have seen something like that go down on TV, so that I knew nothing was wrong with me."
Bass said the special will show his and Turchin's love story and the intense planning of the "perfect day for friends and family."
"You are going to see something special, but you'll see a lot of funny things, too," Bass added, laughing. "Because two guys planning a wedding is very difficult."
