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The Observer's "frolicky pan-sexual sex symbol for the new millennium" is honoured for his services to the arts, LGBT rights and AIDS charities
Alan Cumming and the Princess Royal
Alan Cumming receives OBE from the Princess Royal
Scottish actor and gay rights activist Alan Cumming received his OBE from the Princess Royal at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace today, 24 November.
He was awarded in the Queen's birthday Honours List in June for his services to film, theatre, the arts and for his work with several AIDS charities and LGBT rights organisations on both sides of the Atlantic, including AMFAR, Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights AIDS, GLAAD and the HRC.
He is also a member of the Creative Coalition, which educates leaders in the arts community in the areas of First Amendment rights, arts advocacy and public education, and is a patron of Scottish Youth Theatre and NORM-UK, the charity concerned with foreskin health and matters related to circumcision.
Cumming, who has stated that he thinks of himself as bisexual, married Hilary Lyon in 1985. They divorced in 1993.
In January 2007 he became the civil partner of graphic artist Grant Shaffer at a ceremony at the Old Royal Naval College Greenwich. In a profile in The Times, he revealed that he "would dearly like to adopt a child".
The Observer once described him as "a frolicky pan-sexual sex symbol for the new millennium".
He became a US citizen in November 2008.
