Don’t just assume everyone is straight
Fleabag star urges end to speculation over sexuality
ANDREW Scott has said homophobia could be “eradicated” if nobody made the assumption that everybody was straight.
The Sherlock and Fleabag star revealed although it “doesn’t seem like much”, constantly being asked whether he had a girlfriend while a teen “builds up over time”.
Dubliner Scott, who came out to his parents in his early 20s, said desexualising people was a “really awful thing”.
In his latest film, the actor, 47, stars alongside fellow Irishman and Normal People actor Paul Mescal in All Of Us Strangers. It sees his character comes to terms with his sexuality and travels back to speak to his parents about it.
Scott said he was “overwhelmed” watching the film, as he had opened up a part of himself which he’d been “ashamed of” for so long.
Speaking on the This Cultural Life podcast about growing up gay being difficult, he said: “I think what’s sort of insidious for so many queer people is that, to desexualise anybody I think is a really, really awful thing.
“I think what can happen, or certainly has happened in the past I hope to a lesser extent now, but you sort of desexualise yourself.
“So much of homophobia, I think, could be eradicated if in society we just made the simple decision that we do not assume that everybody is straight.”
On whether he felt that in a “pronounced way” growing up in Ireland in the 1990s, he added: “Yes, absolutely.
“Well, the Catholic Church was not just about homosexuality but any form of sexuality, I think it’s awful considering what was actually
going on there.”