After former Bachelor star Colton Underwood revealed he was gay last week, rumors of a potential Netflix show about the Underwood’s life began to circulate. Now “Bachelor” fans are demanding the Netflix “documentary” be canceled over claims Underwood “stalked” his final pick on the “Bachelor.”
As reported by The Daily Wire, Underwood came out as gay during an interview on “Good Morning America,” saying, “I’ve ran from myself for a long time. I’ve hated myself for a long time … And I’m gay. And I came to terms with that earlier this year and have been processing it. And the next step in all of this was sort of letting people know.”
“I’m still nervous, but yeah,” he added. “It’s been a journey for sure.”
Last week, Variety reported that Underwood would be the star of his own reality show on Netflix. The outlet reported that multiple sources said the series would be unscripted and consist of several episodes and described the show as centering around Underwood living as an openly gay man. Netflix did not comment to Variety about the project.
The outlet reported that there is no confirmed date on when the series will be released, but “a source close to production says Underwood is currently filming.”
Rumors of the potential series led to a petition from Change.org calling on Netflix to cancel the “documentary.” The petition had received over 21,000 signatures by mid-day on Monday and listed a goal of 25,000 signatures.
The petition states that Colton “stalked his final pick, Cassie Randolph” and alleges that he “placed a tracker on her car, sent her and her friends anonymous threatening texts, and was even seen standing outside her window extremely late in the night, resulting in her brother attempting to de-escalate the situation.”
The description of the petition concludes that “Cassie is a victim of Colton’s abuse, and he does not deserve a platform in any way.” The petition was not started in response to Underwood coming out as a gay man but rather was in response to his past behavior. The site explains, “Regardless of his sexuality, Colton should not be given a platform as a result of his abusive, manipulative, and dangerous behavior.”
Over the weekend, Deadline reported, “After their split last year, Randolph filed a restraining order against Underwood, claiming he was stalking her. Randolph later had the restraining order lifted.”
As reported by The Daily Wire on Sunday, actor/singer Lance Bass spoke on “The Ben & Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast,” saying that a minority in the LGBTQ might not approve of how Underwood revealed his sexuality.
“This gay community is very diverse, but we can also be very fickle,” Bass said, as reported by Deadline. “He’s definitely gonna get a lot of backlash from the community at first. Not the majority, but there is a small percentage of the community that’s just gonna not like the fact that he came out this way, that he’s monetizing the experience. They don’t think he deserves this attention and one of those reasons is, and this is what I experienced when I came out… when you first come out, most people have no clue about the LGBT community.”
“They don’t know what the issues are because they’ve been so separated from that on purpose,” he added. “So when someone comes out as a public figure, so many people immediately go, ‘It’s too late.’ They don’t like to support it because they don’t feel like you know what you’re talking about yet. But I don’t think Colton is trying to lead that charge of trying to be the spokesperson for the LGBTQ community.”