Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey has revealed a harrowing encounter he had recently at a coffee shop in Washington, D.C. with a homophobic man who threatened his life.
The British-born actor told the UK's The Evening Standard of the incident, which occurred in October the morning after LGBTQ advocacy organization the Human Rights Campaign's annual gala.
The man threatened to shoot Bailey if he didn't remove his hat.
Bailey had attended the HRC gala to honor his Fellow Travelers costar Matt Bomer, who was given an award at the October 14th event.
The following morning, Bailey said he was chatting with the coffee shop barista, who had recognized him from Bridgerton, when the man approached him, asking if he was 'famous.' Then, upon seeing his hat, began to berate him.
He told The Evening Standard:
“Then he got my cap, and he pulled it off my head and he threw it across the room and he said, ‘Get out of this f**king coffee shop, you queer.”
Bailey then went to retrieve his hat, and when he put it back on the man threatened to kill him, telling him:
"'If you don’t take that cap off, I’m gonna f**king shoot you. Where I’m from, people like me kill people like you.'"
The actor said no one in the shop knew what to do apart from one woman named Angela, who began filming the encounter and defending Bailey, saying that he is "welcome in this country."
Bailey went on to say that the trauma of the encounter aside, what most worried him is how the man who attacked him may be influencing people back home in Pennsylvania, where he said he was from.
“Potentially, there is a kid who – that’s his father. That’s his uncle. That’s his teacher.”
He also said he felt a keen awareness that most queer people do not have the insulation of fame and security that he has.
"I’ve got friends and security. There are so many people that don’t. They are surrounded by that every day, and the torment of what that must be like, the amount of fear that was generated..."
"If that’s what children are surrounded by, they’re not going to be able to grow in any way.”
On social media, people were appalled by what happened to Bailey and the commentary on the state of our country the incident presents.
Bailey went on to say that the soaring rates of anti-LGBTQ hate crimes in both the US and his native UK in recent years prompted him to speak out about the encounter.
May this story be a wake-up call to all the would-be Angelas out there brave enough to stand up for LGBTQ+ people, or any marginalized people, when they come under threat.
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