Actor Justice Smith Comes Out As Queer Amid Black Lives Matter Protests

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdomactor Justice Smith came out as queer on Friday night on Instagram as he showed support for the Black Lives Matter movement and called for Queer and Trans inclusion. 

The post was a video of the protest that Smith attended in New Orleans attached was a long caption in which he said, “As a black queer man myself, I was disappointed to see certain people eager to say Black Lives Matter, but hold their tongue when Trans/Queer was added. I want to reiterate this sentiment: if your revolution does not include Black Queer voices, it is anti-black.”

He went on to discuss the death of Tony McDade, a black transgender man who was shot and killed by a Tallahassee Police Department officer on May 27. Smith said, “If your revolution is okay with letting black trans people like #TonyMcDade slip through the cracks in order to solely liberate black cishet men, it is anti-black. You are trying to push yourself through the door of a system designed against you, and then shut the door behind you.”

Smith was accompanied at the New Orleans protests by his partner Nicholas Ashe, an actor from Queen Sugar. Smith addressed Ashe in his post by stating, “You’ve been my rock and guiding light through all of this and I love you so much. I know that on the other side of this Is change, though the fight is far from over.”

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Smith has been active on social media with his support of the Black Lives Matter movement. On May 27 Smith posted a video about black mental health on Instagram. He said, “this wasn’t about #georgefloyd but i think the same institution that criminalizes black mental illness criminalizes blackness altogether. it emboldens people to call the police on us and feel justified. it keeps us voiceless and small, with a thin margin of error, so if mistakes ARE made, it warrants death.”

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Protests have been occurring in major United States cities as a response to the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed in police custody by an officer kneeling on his neck.