Even after finding fame on Bridgerton, Jonathan Bailey still finds himself facing blatant homophobia, such as when a random man threatened to kill him.
In an interview with U.K. outlet The Standard published on Tuesday, December 12, the Fellow Travelers star, 35, said the incident occurred in October while he was in Washington, D.C., for the annual gala produced by the LGBTQ+ organization the Human Rights Campaign. Bailey attended the dinner with Bridgerton executive producer Shonda Rhimes, and he met President Joe Biden at the event.
The next day, while wearing a Human Rights Campaign hat at a local coffee shop, the unidentified man approached him.
“Then he got my cap,” Bailey recalled, “and he pulled it off my head and he threw it across the room and he said, ‘Get out of this f—king coffee shop, you queer.’”
“He walked over, picked up his hat, and put it back on his head,” Bailey continued, and then repeated the man’s words. “‘If you don’t take that cap off, I’m gonna f—ing shoot you…Where I’m from, people like me kill people like you.’”
Bailey recalled that one woman came to his defense: “She got her phone out and she said, ‘I’m recording this message, I think you are welcome in this country.” Then she directed her words toward the attacker. “‘And what you’re saying, I think, is appalling.’”
The incident took five minutes, and then the man left.
“My life was threatened. My body believed it; my brain didn’t and it took me a while to really catch up with it.” Bailey said while recalling the frightening incident. “But I’ve got friends and security. There are so many people that don’t. They are surrounded by that every day, and the torment of what that must be like, the amount of fear that was generated… If that’s what children are surrounded by, they’re not going to be able to grow in any way.”
The English actor says prejudice against the LGBTQ+ community is universal.
“That’s not just an American story,” he added. “It’s international. And it’s terrifying, that [here in the U.K.] we’re not looking after queer people, in terms of allowing them into the country. Because that is the reality; people’s lives are literally at risk.”
Bailey is fighting homophobia by now working with the charity Just Like Us, which brings queer speakers into schools.
“You’re twice as likely to be bullied if you’re gay, or queer,” he said. “And yet if there’s positive LGBTQ+ messaging within the school system, 100 percent of people’s mental health and happiness increases. It’s a no brainer.”
In an interview with People published on December 7, Bailey said he realized he might be gay when he was 11 years old, which made his early education very difficult.
“It’s a pretty common story that school is terrifying, especially in a world where people don’t understand or the teachers and children don’t understand LGBTQ+ identities and experiences,” he shared.
In addition to Bridgerton, Bailey is also starring in the role of a gay man in the Showtime series Fellow Travelers. The drama, which premiered in October, follows Bailey and Matt Bomer’s characters as they embark on a secret romance in the 1950s.
“I had looked for these gay stories, a sweeping gay love story, and I hadn’t really seen them,” Bailey said. “This ticked every single box, and it’s something I know I’ll be proud of for the rest of my career.”
He believes his role as congressional staff member Tim Laughlin can be inspiring to the LGBTQ+ community.
“The superpower of being on the outside looking in means that when you’re older, you are drawn to storytelling and creatives who are singular and exciting,” he continued. “And I think queer people have a real strength to them, which could be celebrated.”
Fellow Travelers airs on Showtime Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
