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Remembering The Time Wayne Brady Destroyed A Homophobic Tweet In 2018
Five years ago, Wayne Brady was clapping back at tweets calling him “gay.”
A few years can make a lot of difference!
Wayne Brady has now come out as pansexual, but the actor, singer, and comedian had to dodge certain accusations about his sexuality at a time when he was probably still exploring his identity and was likely not prepared to make any official statements.
In February 2018, Brady went on an episode of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah to promote his return to the Broadway production of Kinky Boots. Brady played the lead character of Lola – a drag queen – in the musical, and was facing homophobic tweets for playing a queer character. One homophobe in particular had been sending various angry messages to Brady, so he took the time to read them out loud during a segment on The Daily Show.
“Wayne, are you actually gay? Or do you just support gay and pride lifestyle?” the message read. “I'm guessing you’re gay!!! Do you know what God says about laying with another man?”
Brady comments, “No, because God didn’t tell me about my penis.”
He then gets back to reading the letter, “You will not make it to heaven. It is Satan a.k.a. Lucifer that you are following. God gave everyone another chance after he flooded the Earth, and people like you screwed up again. That is why God gives you the freedom to choose. You are going to have so much fun burning in torment and hell forever.”
“Baby, I already got a tan,” Brady jokes.
The message continues, “Fire is real. I used to like you on Whose Line Is it Anyway? until I found out you were a gay?! Now, I don’t watch it anymore. People should not support your lifestyle. But you see Satan is rising up in the world while, while God people are being lowered. That’s ok, I will be in glory soon.”
Brady ends the segment with a final comment, “Hey baby, better you than me.”
Based on what he wrote in his coming out statement published on People this week, it’s probably safe to assume that Brady wasn’t totally unaware that he had an attraction to other men when this was filmed in 2018. Alas, it’s also likely that he hadn’t come to terms with it yet, or just didn’t know how to put things into words – something that many queer people experience over time.
In hindsight, it’s fascinating to see Brady toeing the line between not denying that he feels same-sex attraction but still reading the tweet as if it’s making totally wrong assumptions about him. With that said, it should be noted that Brady was probably more annoyed that these messages didn’t come from a kind and welcoming place. Instead, they were making assumptions and then condemning him based on those assumptions.
It’s great that Brady has taken the time to understand himself, and that he had the courage to come out to the whole world after learning more about who he is. We stan!
Bernardo Sim is a writer, editor, and content creator. Born in Brazil, he currently lives in South Florida. You can follow him on Instagram at @bernardosim.
Bernardo Sim is a writer, editor, and content creator. Born in Brazil, he currently lives in South Florida. You can follow him on Instagram at @bernardosim.
