‘Heartstopper’ Star Kit Connor Outs Himself After Queerbaiting Accusations
"Congrats for forcing an 18-year-old to out himself. I think some of you missed the point of the show."
Heartstopper actor Kit Connor outed himself as bisexual on Tuesday after fans repeatedly accused him of queerbaiting.
This year, Heartstopper debuted on Netflix to thunderous queer applause. Adapted from the graphic novel by Alice Oseman, the series told the love story of gay geek, Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and bisexual jock, Nick Nelson (Kit Connor).
At its core, Heartstopper is about respecting people’s right to walk their own paths of queer self-discovery. However, it seems some fans missed the memo and have outed Kit Connor.
On a podcast earlier this year, Connor spoke of the discomfort he felt around Heartstopper fans’ obsession with his sexuality. “I’m perfectly confident and comfortable with my sexuality,” he said. “I’m not too big on labels and things like that, and I don’t feel like I need to label myself, especially publicly.”
Rather than respecting the 18-year-old’s desire to keep his sexuality private, fans continued to accuse Connor of ‘queerbaiting’. In September, fan speculation and interrogation around Connor’s sexuality reared its head again after he was spotted hanging out with queer actor Maia Reficco.
After deactivating his Twitter in the wake of fan outpour over his interaction with Reficco, Connor returned to Twitter yesterday and came out as bisexual.
back for a minute. i’m bi. congrats for forcing an 18 year old to out himself. i think some of you missed the point of the show. bye
— Kit Connor (@kit_connor) October 31, 2022
“Back for a minute. I’m bi. Congrats for forcing an 18-year-old to out himself. I think some of you missed the point of the show. Bye,” the actor tweeted.
Author of Heartstopper, Alice Oseman replied, “I truly don’t understand how people can watch Heartstopper and then gleefully spend their time speculating about sexualities and judging based on stereotypes. I hope all those people are embarrassed as FUCK. Kit, you’re amazing.”
Queerbaiting is a marketing technique for media products in which queer content was explicitly promised to draw in queer audiences — but never delivered. Kit Connor is an actor playing a bisexual in an openly queer show, a scenario that doesn’t even fit one part of the criteria for queerbaiting.
While the lines between public and private often blur with personal celebrity branding, the assertion that a person can ‘queerbait’ via their private life is dehumanising. Connor is not a product, he is a person who made their choice to not publicly come out abundantly clear — and fans should have respected that.
At 18, Kit Connor was not queerbaiting. However, like many LGBT+ celebrities before him, he has been outed against his wishes and that is not OK.