Of course, if you're a real geek, you know Rejoicing star Chris Colferwho played openly gay Kurt Hummel.
Rejoicing began airing in 2009, in a cultural climate that was arguably even more hostile to gays than it is now – and during a recent appearance on YouTube Books that changed my life series, Chris got real about the struggles he faced on his path to newfound fame.
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“I liked pretending… I liked creating other people, creating characters,” he said. “I loved telling stories. I never in a million years thought that fame would have any meaning at all in my career… It got really scary very quickly.”
“I played an openly gay teenager at a time when people didn't like to see openly gay teenagers on television… It wasn't welcomed. And almost immediately the death threats and security threats began. I began to develop severe agoraphobia.”
Chris went on to say that the level of scrutiny and hatred he faced at the time seems unthinkable in today's environment, but it did happen. “It’s hard to explain now because the world has changed so much for the better that sometimes people don’t believe me… but back then, in the early 2000s, it wasn’t normal to be gay,” he said.
“Late-night talk show hosts swore at me, and that was completely normal because I was a gay kid. Politicians said things about me publicly, completely normal, because I was a gay kid. Megachurch pastors called me the Antichrist, and that was completely accepted because I was a gay kid. Nobody defended me. Nobody came to my aid.”
“When I talked to people about it, they said, 'Well, what do you expect? You're a gay guy Rejoicing. This is exactly what will happen.”
You can watch the entire interview Here.
