One wants to believe in this day and age that homophobia does not exist. The reality is a much sadder truth. Elliot Page spoke about this in his new upcoming memoir, Pageboy.
Pageboy drops on June 6, 2023, but People magazine got a sneak peek ahead of publishing day. In an excerpt, Elliot reveals that a powerful Hollywood actor once told him that he was not gay but simply afraid of men. This A-lister did not stop there.
Elliot came out as homosexual in 2014 and as trans in 2020. This incident in question occurred just two months after he came out as gay. Elliot has chosen not to divulge this person’s name, but they know who they are and have hopefully since learned to be better.
This chapter of Elliot’s book is entitled "Famous [expletive] at Party.” This unknown actor and Elliot were casual acquaintances but were not particularly close.
"You aren't gay. That doesn't exist. You are just afraid of men,” this misguided celeb told Elliot.
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If that was not bad enough, this celeb doubled down. "I'm going to f— you to make you realize you aren’t gay,” they went on to say. What a horrible thing to say to someone brave enough to live their truth in a world that often shames them.
It appears that this person knew on some level that what they said crossed a line. A couple of days after saying all the horrible things, they backtracked a bit.
"I don't have a problem with gay people I swear,” they claimed.
Elliot was not buying it. "I think you might,” he responded.
Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident for Elliot nor is uncommon for the queer community at large.
“I've had some version of that happen many times throughout my life. A lot of queer and trans people deal with it incessantly,” Elliot explains. “These moments that we often, like, don't talk about or we're supposed to just brush off, when actually it's very awful.”
Elliot hopes that by including this in the book, he can help create needed change. “I put that story in the book because it’s about highlighting the reality, the [expletive] we deal with and what gets sent to us constantly, particularly in environments that are predominantly cis and heterosexual,” he goes on to say. “How we navigate that world where you either have more extreme, overt moments like that. Or you have the more, like, subtle jokes. These are very powerful people. They're the ones choosing what stories are being told and creating content for people to see all around the world."
Elliot also explains that many other people witnessed this exchange. “I’m purposely not sharing his name,” Elliot stated. “But he will hear about this and know it’s him.”
