Homophobic Christians have been trolling the former Batchelor star online.
Back in April, star of The Batchelor and former football player Colton Underwood revealed that he is gay in an interview with Good Morning America.
Nearly eight months later, in December 2021, Netflix dropped the six-part reality show ‘Coming Out Colton‘, which received a mixed response from the LGBT+ community, largely based on former accusations of harassment and stalking that were levelled at Underwood by his past girlfriend Cassie Randolph (who later dropped the charges), and by other folk who questioned whether we really needed to see another privileged, white male getting a whole TV show to talk about himself.
The memes came rolling in about both Underwood and the show itself, notably the fact that out Olympian Gus Kenworthy serves as Underwood’s “gay guide” throughout the series, which left a lot of gays left wondering where their ‘gay guide’ was and saying that it just further added to the privilege of it all.
In fact, over 35,000 people signed a petition to pull the series, citing the Randolph accusations at the forefront of their movement: “he does not deserve a platform in any way. Regardless of his sexuality, Colton should not be given a platform as a result of his abusive, manipulative, and dangerous behavior.”
In any case, the show, went ahead and, while it garnered some praise, largely ‘gay Twitter’ was not feeling it. At all.
Now, Underwood has spoken out about abuse he receives online from people of the Christian faith – to which he himself subscribes – which he describes as “not okay”.
In an Instagram post on December 28, Colton posted some screenshots of such messages, along with the caption: “for those of you who saw my show you know I’m still on my faith journey. while I’ve had a ton of support from the Christan community I’ve also heard “well it’s got a lot better over the years” and while that might be true I can’t help but to think if these messages still get sent to me…what is being said to closeted men and women who want to remain in their faith?”
The star continues: “These messages are not okay. They do not represent Christians. They do not represent our God.”
When Underwood came out back in April, he spoke at he time about the relationship he has with faith and how it connects to him coming out: “I learned in the Bible that gay is a sin,” he explained.
Did you watch the show and what were your thoughts? Let us know in the comments!
Watch the trailer for Coming Out Colton below: