To be honest, I actually, I have gotten
homophobic messages.
What's the craziest part is
it's like sometimes, it's from people I know.
Attitude: Some viewers
struggle to separate actors from characters, right?
I was wondering, have either of you received any homophobia
from viewers that have that problem?
To be honest, I actually I have gotten
homophobic messages.
Really?
What's the craziest part is
it's like, sometimes it's from people I know,
which is even crazier.
And it's, you know, I think it just kind of shows,
you know, where the world's at and like,
possibly, like, how much this show is actually needed.
You know, like, it starts a conversation
and I think that's the most important thing.
And I think, you know, especially in a time, like the
world is right now,
we need more conversations started.
Yeah,
That's kind of my view on it, but...
What was your response to those responses?
To be honest, it was usually just like
As far as if when it was like, people that I knew,
I just would either, I would either kind of lean into it,
and just be like, "Okay, and what?"
Like, whatever.
Or I would just try to like,
enlighten them as much as I possibly could.
But, you know, to be honest,
I feel like there's just, there's so many undertones
of like understated homophobia in the world.
And a lot of people are like, have
these little microaggressions
that they don't realise are actually homophobic.
And when they do stuff like that,
and send you homophobic messages and stuff like that,
it just, it's not appropriate.
And I think the best way to do is either,
like try to educate them,
or just realise that they're ignorant,
and you can't really say anything that's going to
help them, unfortunately,
I personally, I haven't experienced anything like that.
I mean, the response has been
just nothing but positive
from what I've seen.
Like it's really nice and touching
getting messages from people who
have watched the show and it's resonated with them.
I haven't had any negative messages,
which has honestly been just nice
to have a positive response, you know,
and just know that people are connecting to it in that way.
Since shooting the show,
I guess it's given you a unique insight
into the experiences of LGBTQ teens.
What do you think is the biggest issue
facing that community in the US?
It, kind of, highlights the depiction of like,
what people of colour in the LGBT community
have to go through in the States.
And I think this is kind of like worldwide, you know, especially
I've gotten messages from people worldwide
who have somehow seen the show,
and it's usually like, "This is my exact story.
This is what I'm going through.." in this place,
or this place, or this place.
And I think it's important to realise that like,
this is not just like a US problem,
this is not just like a southern America or South America problem
or a UK problem.
It's an everywhere problem.
I think, the more, again, the more it'll be solved.
Yeah, I think it's just like the messages
I was getting from people who were just like,
oh, wow, that's my like, they're connecting and like, "That's my story."
Like there's a lack of representation.
There's a lack of, of their story being told and seen.
So I think that's probably
I think that's one of the, when it comes to at least this arena,
I think that's one of the problems there.
You know, people being able to actually see themselves
and identify with that.