Ian ‘H’ Watkins shot to fame with Steps within the Nineties and got here out publicly in 2007. (Getty)
Steps star Ian “H” Watkins is ready to change into a licensed homosexual icon with the information that an eight-foot-high statue of him shall be erected in his dwelling city of Cowbridge in Wales.
The Welsh singer, who stated in a documentary final 12 months that he felt like “the one homosexual within the village” rising up in Cwm-parc, within the Rhondda Valley, shall be immortalised with a sculpture exterior The Bear Resort within the city centre.
The statue, made potential by personal donations, is ready to be revealed on the Vale of Glamorgan city’s Pleasure occasion in June.
Watkins instructed Sky Information that the deliberate tribute got here as a shock to him.
“Once I bought the e-mail informing me, I fell off my chair,” the star stated. “That is one among my proudest moments, not dangerous for a Welsh lad a lot of individuals assume is as daft as a bathroom brush.
“I really like calling Cowbridge my dwelling and I’m obsessed with doing my bit to assist make it a greater, extra inclusive, very good place to dwell.”
In 2022, the hashtag “Blocked by H from Steps” trended on Twitter/X after the star went on a spree of blocking anti-trans hate.
Regardless of a backlash, Watkins made gentle of the scenario posting memes, together with an previous photograph of himself at a desk utilizing a pc with the caption: “Very busy day on the workplace… #blocked.”
He got here out publicly as homosexual in 2007 and has change into a powerful advocate for LGBTQ+ rights within the years since.
After making historical past as one-half of Dancing on Ice‘s first same-sex couple, and regardless of homophobic complaints he acquired whereas on the present – which he known as “a dagger to the guts” – he known as on producers to forged a transgender contestant.
Final 12 months, he revealed that Steps had turned down an invite to carry out in Dubai due to anti-LGBTQ+ legal guidelines within the United Arab Emirates metropolis.