Actor Kit Connor from the Netflix series “Heartstopper” is not pleased with fans who he says succeeded in “forcing” him to clarify his sexuality.
The 18-year-old star lashed out with a Twitter post after fans questioned him holding hands with his “A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow” co-star Maia Reficco. Connor didn’t seem happy about revealing these personal details about himself.
“[B]ack for a minute. i’m bi. congrats for forcing an 18 year old to out himself. i think some of you missed the point of the show. bye,” he shared with 1 million Twitter followers Monday.
The British actor had previously left the social media platform after fans accused him of “queerbaiting,” which is the practice of acting gay but not confirming one way or the other. One other famous example of a mainstream celebrity who fans think is “queerbaiting” is singer Harry Styles, who notoriously won’t confirm his sexuality.
“[T]his is a silly silly app. bit bored of it now, deleting twitter :),” Connor wrote in mid-September.
“Heartstopper” author Alice Oseman was one of many people who rushed to support Connor. “I truly don’t understand how people can watch Heartstopper and then gleefully spend their time speculating about sexualities and judging based on stereotypes. I hope all those people are embarrassed as F***. Kit you are amazing,” she replied.
“Heartstopper” is a British coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama based on Oseman’s books. The series tells the story of Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) falling in love with classmate Nick Nelson (Connor). Since the main characters are gay, fans feel especially concerned about the sexuality of the actors who play those roles.
Connor addressed this controversy once before. During a podcast interview in May, the teen actor said he didn’t want to define his sexuality yet.
“We’re still all so young. To start sort of speculating about our sexualities and maybe pressuring us to come out when maybe we’re not ready,” the actor said at the time.
“For me, I just feel perfectly confident and comfortable with my sexuality. But I don’t feel the need to really, you know — I’m not too big on labels and things like that. I’m not massive about that. I don’t feel like I need to label myself, especially not publicly.”
He continued, “It feels a bit strange to make assumptions about a person’s sexuality just based on hearing their voice or seeing their appearance,” Connor said. “I feel like that’s a very interesting, slightly problematic sort of assumption to make.”