Actor/singer Lance Bass claims newly out Colton Underwood may receive some backlash from the gay community for “monetizing the experience” of coming out.
Bass made his comments on the latest episode of The Ben & Ashley I. Almost Famous Podcast this week.
Colton announced he was gay to host Robin Roberts on the Good Morning America show earlier this week. Deadline reported he has a Netflix reality show planned about his life as a gay man.
Bass, who was part of boy group NSYNC, came out as gay in 2006.
“This gay community is very diverse, but we can also be very fickle,” Bass said on the podcast. “He’s definitely gonna get a lot of backlash from the community at first. Not the majority, but there is a small percentage of the community that’s just gonna not like the fact that he came out this way, that he’s monetizing the experience. They don’t think he deserves this attention and one of those reasons is, and this is what I experienced when I came out… when you first come out, most people have no clue about the LGBT community.”
He added: “They don’t know what the issues are because they’ve been so separated from that on purpose. So when someone comes out as a public figure, so many people immediately go, “It’s too late.” They don’t like to support it because they don’t feel like you know what you’re talking about yet. But I don’t think Colton is trying to lead that charge of trying to be the spokesperson for the LGBTQ community.”
Bass said he could relate to Underwood’s situation because NSYNC’s following was largely women. “90% of my fans were women, and they all thought I was straight. I made my money off women and singing about love and using that market. So me coming out, it was scary… cause now everyone is gonna see me as a liar.”
