Even though we’ve still got an incredibly long road ahead as society in regard to accepting every human and their particular choice of lifestyle, we should all stop and realize we’ve come a long, long way.
David Yost, the actor who played Billy Cranston (aka Blue Ranger) on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, recently come out as gay but in revealing his sexuality to the world, the former kid’s TV show star pulled the curtain back on an awful work environment that basically ruined his life.
Yost did an interview in which he discussed the abuse he faced on the set of the show. Yost admitted he was harassed for his sexuality and was called a faggot almost daily.
Yost says he quit the show because he was harassed over his sexuality. “Creators, producers, writers, directors” all threw the F-word around at him. Yost, whose character was written out in subsequent franchise incarnations, reveals in a lengthy interview that he “walked off set one day in the middle of lunch,” a move he had been thinking about for about a week. “Continuing to work in an environment like that is really difficult. I myself was struggling with who I was, or what I was, and to be made fun of on some level, or to be stereotyped, or put into a category … I was continually being told I’m not worthy of where I am because I’m quote-unquote a gay person and I’m not supposed to be an actor and can’t be a superhero.” His co-stars, Yost says, were beckoned into producers’ offices on multiple occasions to be quizzed about his sexuality.
The hostile work environment sent Yost into a tailspin and he spent two years trying to “pray the gay away, had a nervous break down, checked himself into a mental hospital for five weeks, and upon his release he moved to Mexico for a year.”
Yost finally came to terms with his sexuality and is now speaking out about his time on the show.
Is anyone ready to talk about a Power Rangers “curse” yet? Yost almost had a nervous breakdown because of his sexuality, the Red Ranger killed a guy, the Green Ranger is always flying off the handle, and this Power Rangers stuntman is robbing people. That franchise is morphin’ cursed.
[via Queerty]