Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s ‘Modern Family’ stint helped to shield him from homophobia. The 48-year-old actor played Mitchell Pritchett on the hit TV sitcom, and Jesse has explained how the show changed his life. Speaking on the ‘Dinner’s on Me’ podcast, Jesse shared: “I went to Las Vegas, and I had been in Las Vegas a few years earlier, and I sort of got gay bashed a little bit. “It wasn’t anything violent, but it was definitely like, there was negative energy coming at me from a couple that felt uncomfortable around me and my then-boyfriend. “And then years later I went, after ‘Modern Family’, an…