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.
Contents:
- ORIGAL BLUE POWER RANGER REVEALS THAT HE WAS HARASSED ON SET FOR BEG GAY
- THE POWER RANGERS INTRODUC ITS FIRST GAY CHARACTER
- WELE THE FIRST OUT-GAY POWER RANGER!
- GO, GAY POWER RANGER!
- ORIGAL BLUE POWER RANGER DAVID YOST ON GAY REPRENTATN NETFLIX'S POWER RANGERS RNN SPECIAL
- POWER RANGERS INTRODUC FIRST OPENLY GAY CEMATIC SUPERHERO
ORIGAL BLUE POWER RANGER REVEALS THAT HE WAS HARASSED ON SET FOR BEG GAY
Origal Blue Power Ranger reveals that he was harassed on set for beg gay * the gay power ranger *
Related: A mighty morphg marriage proposal for the gay Power Rangers. A clip om the episo shows the other characters fdg out that their fellow Ranger is gay when she walks off holdg her girliend’s hand. And durg the three-part terview, Yost revealed jt what happened behd the scen when his character was wrten off the show (and sent to live on another pla): Yost actually walked off set one day after beg teased about beg gay.
"I had jt heard that several tim while workg on the show om creators, producers, wrers, directors… Basilly I jt felt like i was ntually beg told I was not worthy of beg where I am bee I'm a gay person. And jt last year, reports were circulatg that the follow-up Power Rangers film was set to clu a transgenr ranger the st and that the Blue Ranger was gog to be wrten as a gay character, though no new velopments on those onts have surfaced sce then.
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.
THE POWER RANGERS INTRODUC ITS FIRST GAY CHARACTER
Beyond a nfirmatn that green is undoubtedly the gayt lor, fans are given an troductn to Izzy Garcia’s romantic life the thirteenth episo of the show.
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.
WELE THE FIRST OUT-GAY POWER RANGER!
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.
GO, GAY POWER RANGER!
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.
He was regularly lled antigay slurs like "faggot, " and he learned his stars were qutned private about his sexualy by producers on a number of ocsns.
I jt wanted to be left alone and allowed to act, but this 'gay thg' kept gettg my way.
ORIGAL BLUE POWER RANGER DAVID YOST ON GAY REPRENTATN NETFLIX'S POWER RANGERS RNN SPECIAL
I didn't want to be gay, and I was sred speakg up would jeopardize my reer. "Dperate to rega ntrol of his life, Yost unrwent gay-to-straight "nversn therapy" durg the followg two years before eventually led to a nervo breakdown.
"I would love to see a gay character troduced on a show like Power Rangers, " he says. "There's a whole realm of possible stori there we've only begun to tap to, and gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, qutng, and tersex young people need to see themselv reflected world around them. Origal Blue Power Ranger David Yost on gay reprentatn Netflix's Power Rangers rnn special "It's taken a long time to get there, " says the actor, who me out as gay after leavg Mighty Morph Power Rangers 1996.
In the begng, I certaly didn't want people to know that I was gay, " he said. ""I put myself through nversn therapy bee I didn't wanna be gay.
POWER RANGERS INTRODUC FIRST OPENLY GAY CEMATIC SUPERHERO
Warng: The article ntas referenc to homophobia and suici. David Yost, who played Billy, the Blue Ranger, knew he was gay while workg on the show and had to take preutns to make sure no one would fd out. “I said I’m not gonna be gay, I’m gonna foc on my reer.
Yost rells overhearg producers and -stars watchg footage of him and throwg out homophobic slurs. The emotnal toll Yost alt wh exemplifi what was like for many gay people Hollywood at the time. “Everybody thks everybody Hollywood is accepted and s great to be gay.