Empire is a hot new show on Fox delivering characters that viewers can relate to. Jamal Lyon played by Jussie Smollett is a pivotal character who is openly gay and dealing with celebrity status, making music for his families label and struggled with coming out. Smollett who in real life does not like to discuss his personal life may just have been outed by his own co-star Malik Yoba.
It appears that Yoba told Blackfilm in an interview that Smollett is active in the gay community even when Smollett himself does not talk about his sexual preferences. The news went traveled on social media Tuesday like wildfire. Yoba tells Blackfilm, "But if you aren’t really, really taking it off of screen and making it live in the community in a significant way…like I know Jussie, he is gay, and he’s very committed to issues around the LGBT community. He and I have a very close relationship."
Smollett is very professional with his responses when asked if he is gay so it is blatantly obvious that whether he is gay or not, it is his own story to tell. When talking with Sway last month, he said people should not “assume” he’s gay in real life. "I'm not willing to confirm or deny anything. I live my life. If someone is looking for a box to put me in, that's not going to happen. I live my life, and if you really want to know about me, just watch, because I don't hide anything. I just don't choose to talk about my personal life."
The responses in defense of Smollett being outed by Yoba on Twitter were anti-Yoba and pro-Smollett.
In an attempt to put out the wildfire Yoba told USA Today that during the interview he referenced the character and not Smollett. He stated that it was the journalist that misunderstood and wrote it up incorrectly. "I was misquoted in the article. My reference to Jussie was only about his character and storyline on Empire,” he said.
Smollett has great things going for him like signing a record deal with Columbia, recently signing on to support equality with the No H8 campaign and he doesn't seem to be letting this affect his success.
Image via Twitter from iloveblackmovies
Image via Twitter from No H8 Campaign