'Empire' Rep: Jamal's Story Is the Show's Greatt Asset - The Atlantic</tle><meta name="scriptn" ntent="Audienc were promised <em>Kg Lear</em> and Def Jam, not Suge Knight&#39;s <i>Mystic River</i>. So why are we gettg more of the latter?"/><meta property="kx:tle" ntent="'Empire' Rep: Jamal's Story Is the Show's Greatt Asset - The Atlantic"/><meta property="kx:scriptn" ntent="Audienc were promised <em>Kg Lear</em> and Def Jam, not Suge Knight&#39;s <i>Mystic River</i>. So why are we gettg more of the latter?"/><lk rel="nonil" href="><lk rel="image_src" href="><meta name="thor" ntent="Joe Reid, Kev O'Keeffe"/><lk rel="ia:markup_url" href="><meta property="article:publisher" ntent="><meta property="article:opn" ntent="false"/><meta property="article:ntent_tier" ntent="metered"/><meta property="article:tag" ntent="sex"/><meta property="article:sectn" ntent="Culture"/><meta property="article:published_time" ntent="2015-01-22T03:00:00Z"/><meta property="article:modified_time" ntent="2015-01-23T21:06:58Z"/><meta name="robots" ntent="x, follow, max-image-preview:large"/><meta property="og:tle" ntent="'Empire' Rep: Jamal's Story Is the Show's Greatt Asset"/><meta property="og:scriptn" ntent="Audienc were promised Kg Lear and Def Jam, not Suge Knight&#39;s Mystic River. So why are we gettg more of the latter?"/><meta property="og:url" ntent="><meta property="og:type" ntent="article"/><meta property="og:image" ntent="><meta property="twter:rd" ntent="summary_large_image"/><lk rel="alternate" type="applitn/rss+xml" tle="The Atlantic" href="/feed/all/"/><lk rel="alternate" type="applitn/rss+xml" tle="Bt of The Atlantic" href="/feed/bt-of/"/><meta name="referrer" ntent="unsafe-url"/><meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-pable" ntent="y"/><meta name="apple-mobile-web-stat-bar-style" ntent="black"/><meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-tle" ntent="The Atlantic"/><meta name="keywords" ntent="Taraji P. Henson, Naomi Campbell, gay man, drama seri Empire, Cookie, over-the-top sneerg villa, Lee Daniels, FBI plot, licly over-the-top earthquake" emID="#keywords"/><meta name="news_keywords" ntent="Taraji P. Henson, Naomi Campbell, gay man, drama seri Empire, Cookie, over-the-top sneerg villa, Lee Daniels, FBI plot, licly over-the-top earthquake"/><meta name="" ntent="culture,sex,televisn"/><meta name="" ntent="Joe Reid, Kev O'Keeffe"/><meta name="" ntent="2015-01-22T03:00:00Z"/><lk rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" href=" crossorig=""/><lk rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" href=" crossorig=""/><lk rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" href=" crossorig=""/><lk rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" href=" crossorig=""/><lk rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" href=" crossorig=""/><script type="applitn/ld+json">{"@ntext":","@type":"NewsArticle","headle":"'Empire' Rep: Jamal's Story Is the Show's Greatt Asset","alternativeHeadle":"<em>Empire</em>'s Gay Son Is the Show's Greatt Asset","scriptn":"Audienc were promised <em>Kg Lear</em> and Def Jam, not Suge Knight&#39;s <i>Mystic River</i>. So why are we gettg more of the latter?","url":","datePublished":"2015-01-22T03:00:00Z","dateModified":"2015-01-23T21:06:58Z","isAccsibleForFree":false,"hasPart":{"@type":"WebPageElement","isAccsibleForFree":false,"cssSelector":".article-ntent-body"},"publisher":{"@id":"},"maEntyOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"},"image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","width":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":720},"height":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":405},"url":"},{"@type":"ImageObject","width":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":960},"height":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":540},"url":"},{"@type":"ImageObject","width":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":540},"height":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":540},"url":"}],"thor":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joe Reid","sameAs":"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Kev O'Keeffe","sameAs":"}],"articleSectn":"Culture"}</script><lk rel="preload" as="image" href=" imageSrcSet=" 750w, 828w, 960w, 976w" imageSiz="(m-width: 976px) 976px, 100vw"/><meta name="next-head-unt" ntent="61"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href=" data-n-g=""/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href=" data-n-p=""/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href=" data-n-p=""/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href=" data-n-p=""/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href=" data-n-p=""/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href="><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href="><noscript data-n-css=""></noscript><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/></head><body><div id="__next"><div data-tegory="story page"><div></div><nav class="Nav_root___6bX9" aria-labelledby="se-navigatn" data-tegory="Se Nav" data-event-module="se nav" id="ma-navigatn"><div class="Nav_maNav__yofcm"><a href="#ma-ntent" class="Nav_skipLk__Evjjd">Skip to ntent</a><h2 id="se-navigatn" class="Nav_visuallyHi__AbSDF">Se Navigatn</h2><div class="Nav_flexContaer__Q3LKQ"><ul class="Nav_leftContaer__cPQgJ"><li class="Nav_navListItem__cEyWT Nav_visuallyHiOnMobile__hxCGG"><a href=" class="Nav_navLk__5SUAA"><svg xmlns=" viewBox="0 0 87.83 134" class="Nav_bigA__XvGGC"><tle>The Atlantic

empire family gay

Fox's new hip-hop seri tak a stand by troducg a gay character wh a notorly homophobic genre

Contents:

EMPIRE'S GAY SON IS THE SHOW'S GREATT ASSET

Rather than jt flailg agast his father's homophobia and retreatg to the fort of his keyboard, Jamal summoned his anger to a missn statement: He pledged to take over his father's pany. First, and I fear we've unrsold this our last two reps, how spectacular is that a work TV show picts not only a gay man of lor, but a gay man of lor the hetero-domated world of hip-hop?

Lee Daniels and his team may have unrled Luc's homophobia too hard so far, havg him nsistently refer to Jamal as female and sist homosexualy is a choice egregly bluntly, but 's probably (and sadly) realistic—and mak Jamal's assertn that he is a gay man, emphasis on both of those scriptors, all the more valuable.

"The 31-year-old "Empire" star me out on "The Ellen DeGener Show" after his character om the h Fox seri revealed he's gay.

‘EMPIRE’ ACTOR JSIE SMOLLETT REVEALS HE’S GAY ON ‘ELLEN’: ‘THERE IS NO CLOSET’

"WITH A JUICY BLEND OF MUSIC, DRAMA AND OUTRAGEOUSNESS, 'EMPIRE' HAS BECOME THE BREAKOUT HIT OF 2015Jsie Smollett discs his role on ‘Empire’ and how he had to dn seven tim before landg the role of Jamal Lyon, who me out as gay a recent episo. Smollett also revealed he's gay real life.

"Followg the episo when his character me out, Smollett received hate onle, but didn't ter him om movg forward wh the storyle or revealg he's also gay real life.

EMPIRE 'S GAY SON IS THE SHOW'S GREATT ASSET

Throughout the history of cema, there have been grippg and groundbreakg LGBTQ+ films – stori takg the liv, history, and experienc of people who intify as gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, pansexual and beyond. A key shkicker the early '90s New Queer Cema movement, Araki took a baseball bat to hetero-normative culture and explored gay life on the margs durg Bh's admistratn films by turns funny, ank and anguished.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* EMPIRE FAMILY GAY

Empire 's Gay Son Is the Show's Greatt Asset.

TOP