One of my biggest opinions about Bridgerton is that Jonathan Bailey, a gay man, was probably the show’s best (heterosexual) romantic lead. Bailey’s on-screen chemistry with Simone Ashley was off-the-charts and it was clear that the two actors completely adored each other and trusted each other, which made it even hotter. Bailey never hid his sexuality while promoting Bridgerton, but I appreciated the fact that no one made a big deal about it. Anyway, Bailey is currently in Fellow Travelers, a historical romance-thriller miniseries. He and Matt Bomer are the leads and it is HOT. These are photos of Bomer and Bailey at the recent LA screening of Maestro, where Bailey showed up to support Bomer. Bailey chatted with the Evening Standard recently about life, love and everything else. Some highlights:

Doing an expensive miniseries with two gay leads & two gay actors: “Totally, and you can see it on the screen; the respect. In the early 90s, you needed a straight superstar like Tom Hanks [in Philadelphia, also written by Nyswaner] to bring a queer story and commission it. Cut to thirty years later, and it’s the story itself that is the commissionable thing.”

A gay actor playing gay characters: “I still 100 per cent stand by the fact that I think all actors should be able to do everything. But to have gay actors chronicling the oppression and the trauma of it, I think it only adds to the experience. It’s exciting that people welcome it.”

An awful story about being threatened & harassed in DC: He’d been to Washington DC, he tells me, at an annual event for the LGBTQ+ organisation The Human Rights Campaign. “It was an incredible experience. I met President Biden. I was there with Shonda Rhimes, she was being given an award, Matt Bomer was given another one; I was introducing him. My first political gala. I had the most amazing night; had a drink; couldn’t sleep; buzzing. I woke up the next morning, it was like a montage. Sunshine, I was like, this is brilliant. I went into a coffee shop, and I was wearing a Human Rights Campaign cap from the night before. And the young lady who I was ordering from recognised me from Bridgerton, we were just chatting. And a man arrived behind me and he said, ‘Are you famous?’ And I said something like, ‘I’m really famous for ordering coffee,’ which is actually quite an annoying thing to say. And then he got my cap, and he pulled it off my head and he threw it across the room and he said, ‘get out of this f***ing coffee shop, you queer.” The room went still, Bailey remembers. But he walked over, picked up his hat, and put it back on his head. “If you don’t take that cap off, I’m gonna f***ing shoot you,” it came again. “Where I’m from, people like me kill people like you.”

What happened next: “No one knew what to do, apart from one girl, she was amazing. Angela, she came up, and she got her phone out and she said, ‘I’m recording this message, I think you are welcome in this country. And what you’re saying, I think, is appalling.’ That happened sort of five minutes in, and he left.” The man was from Pennsylvania (yes, Bailey did ask), and what Bailey took from the experience, he says, is that “potentially, there is a kid who – that’s his father. That’s his uncle. That’s his teacher.” He pauses. “My life was threatened. My body believed it; my brain didn’t and it took me a while to really catch up with it. But I’ve got friends and security. There are so many people that don’t. They are surrounded by that every day, and the torment of what that must be like, the amount of fear that was generated… If that’s what children are surrounded by, they’re not going to be able to grow in any way.”

It’s not just an American story: “And of course, that’s not just an American story. It’s international. And it’s terrifying, that [here in the UK] we’re not looking after queer people, in terms of allowing them into the country. Because that is the reality; people’s lives are literally at risk. People are still living in the closet. Or they’ve had a moment where they’re watching and they realise, that was their father’s story, or their mother’s story; or it’s people who have been affected by this, but for the first time are understanding the trauma. People are so shocked that this is such recent history, but the majority of people in the world are living under that sort of belief system. And people on Instagram message from areas in the world where just getting through the day without being outed is survival.”

He is in a relationship but it’s off-limits: There’s “a lovely man”, but that’s all he’ll say. “It’s not secret, but it’s private. Having a private life is, for me, completely critical. I don’t know if I would be able to be as confident to speak out on other things if I felt that my whole life was up for grabs.”

[From The Evening Standard]

That story about being harassed and threatened in a DC coffee shop is wild and infuriating. The fact that just the night before, he’d been part of an amazing HRC event at the White House, and then 12 hours later, that happened… good lord. But old-school homophobia is back in a big way from what I’ve seen in recent years. The gateway for the reentry was transphobia and weaponized fear of “grooming,” and now it’s just plain old homophobia, same as it ever was. It’s disgusting that so many people are still so hateful, bigoted, close-minded. Anyway, Jonathan Bailey seems like a gem, I really love him.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.