Justice Smith Comes Out As Queer, Calls For Queer and Trans Inclusion in BLM
Justice Smith advocated for queer and trans inclusion in the Black Lives Matter movement while also coming out publicly as queer in an Instagram post Friday night. The Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom actor shared his experience at a Black Lives Matter protest in New Orleans, writing that he was “disappointed to see certain people eager to say Black Lives Matter, but hold their tongue when Trans/Queer was added.” Smith attended the protest with his partner, Queen Sugar actor Nicholas Ashe, and emphasized that “if your revolution does not include Black Queer voices, it is anti-black,” also referencing the death of Tony McDade, a trans man who was shot and killed by police in Florida on May 27. “You are trying to push yourself through the door of a system designed against you, and then shut the door behind you,” Smith wrote, and explained that the movement should not be about appealing to “whiteness, straightness, maleness,” but instead about demanding “what should have been given to black, queer, and trans individuals from the beginning. Which is the right to exist.” He finished the caption by thanking Ashe, who he calls his “rock and guiding light through all of this.”
