As the Mighty Morph Power Rangers celebrat s 20th anniversary, David Yost, the actor who played the origal Blue Ranger, shar the story of how he overme bullyg Hollywood, suicidal tennci, and a nervo breakdown on the road to acceptg himself as a gay man.
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THE POWER RANGERS INTRODUC ITS FIRST GAY CHARACTER
David Yost, who left the '90s show after facg harassment for beg gay, wr that the Lnsgate reboot "really stepped up to the plate." * red power ranger gay actor *
When I first moved to Hollywood the ‘90s to be an actor, was still nsired taboo to be gay, pecially if you wanted to be a leadg actor TV seri or film. If you were gay, you certaly were not allowed to make public. I was stgglg so much wh who I was and not wantg to be gay bee of what society was tellg me — that ’s not a good thg, that ’s agast God, that you are somehow different.
There were ments at work that were ma about me terms of beg gay or “beg a faggot, ” and as time went on jt got old and I was tired of listeng to . I was dog any and everythg I uld to get rid of beg gay. I n remember lyg bed my first night the hospal, and sayg, “God, if you give me my md back, I will be gay.
GO, GAY POWER RANGER!
* red power ranger gay actor *
I remember listeng to my peers talkg about him and sayg really horrible thgs about gay people. People always ask me, “Wouldn’t be great if there’s a gay character on one of the Power Rangers TV seri? The more Hollywood puts lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr, qutng, tersex characters a film or TV show, helps people unrstand and see that people are jt people.
Somehow 's 2017 and the film marks the first-ever superhero movie to feature a gay protagonist character. In the origal Power Rangers seri, Tri was portrayed as straight, but the change is fely receivg posive example, the origal Blue Ranger actor David Yost was openly gay when he took on the role, but end up leavg the seri the late '90s after facg harassment over his sexual orientatn. The only superhero that me even close to reprentg non-heterosexualy was Marvel's antihero Deadpool, who intifi as pansexual (however, he never had any non-heterosexual experienc the film) of the Power Rangers LGBT reprentatn on the heels of Disney featurg s first-ever gay character the live-actn remake of Bety and the Beast.
David Yost says he knew he was gay by the time he was the send gra. For Yost, the journey to accept himself as a gay man has been filled wh fear, danger, and self-loathg. "In the church I went to as a kid, I always got msag that beg gay was wrong, that was a s and agast God.
GAY POWER RANGER ACTORS
People church would make horrible ments about gay people, and while they weren't talkg about me specifilly, I knew they were, bee I knew I was gay. It was there, he says, that his feelgs of self-loathg eased and he took his first steps toward acceptg himself as a gay man.
A., I ma a pact wh myself that I would no longer be gay, " Yost says. So I had nvced myself that meant I wasn't gay.