Kit Connor forced to come out

Heartstopper‘s Nick Nelson was able to come out as Bi in his own time; sadly, the young actor who plays him was not.

On Monday evening, Heartstopper star Kit Connor revealed that he is Bisexual on Twitter; after months of being hounded by speculation about his sexuality and accusations of queer-baiting

“back for a minute,” Kit tweeted. “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.”

Kit’s tweet was met with a lot of support, including a message from LGBTQ+ rights group Stonewall “Sending all our love and solidarity” to Kit, adding “Nobody should ever be forced to come out before they are ready. This is your own journey and no one else’s!”

Heartstopper author, Alice Oseman, said: “I truly don’t understand how people can watch Heartstopper and then gleefully spend their time speculating about sexualities and judging based on stereotypes,” she tweeted. “I hope all those people are embarrassed as F—. Kit you are amazing.”

Kizzy Edgell, who plays Darcy Olsson in the Netflix adaptation also tweeted response: “i love u kit im sorry this has been so disgustingly rough on you,” (you’ve) “been treated so unfairly.”

Back in May, Kit Connor tweeted “twitter is so funny man,” Connor in early May. “apparently some people on here know my sexuality better than I do…”

Connor told Hunger Magazine in August that his earlier tweet eluded to the risks involved with outing someone and the distress that can come with it.

“I am not a big believer in labels,” Kit revealed to Hunger. “I believe that they are extremely helpful for some people in terms of self-understanding and self-realisation, but I prefer not to think too much about labels. I don’t feel like I have to tell the world about my sexuality.”

“I completely understand that many fans want queer representation to be authentic and they want to know whether it is authentic,” he continued. “But at the same time you shouldn’t make someone feel uncomfortable to the point where they have to tell a stranger about their sexuality.”

@raejoancreative