Relationship goals

Actor Nicholas Ashe melts hearts with message to bf Justice Smith

Justice Smith and Nicholas Ashe (Photo: @nckashe | Instagram)

After making their relationship public back in June, fellow actors Justice Smith and Nicholas Ashe have again sparked queer joy in the form of a ‘happy birthday’ message that could also easily work as a wedding vow–but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Smith celebrated his birthday on Monday, and Ashe marked the occasion by writing:

justice— you have been the author of all my recent smiles. you make me feel safe. seen. heard. inspired. admired. returning the favor has been my favorite adventure. i’ve always appreciated your authenticity, and brilliance, and passion, but you have certainly outdone yourself this year. bravo. it’s difficult to fully encapsulate my gratitude, but here’s an Instagram post to help me try. happy birthday, beautiful man. i love you most of all. thank you for all this good.

Well OK then! Ain’t love grand?

Ashe also shared a couple of cute ‘couple photos’:

Here’s how Smith replied:

That about sums it up.

Smith, 24, best known for his roles in the TV show The Get Down and movies Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Pokémon Detective Pikachu, revealed that he is dating Ashe in another Instagram post in June.

Smith said that he and Ashe had attended a rally in New Orleans together in response to the death of George Floyd but noticed some fellow protestors were wary of chanting “Black Trans Lives Matter.”

“@nckash and I protested today in New Orleans. We chanted ‘Black Trans Lives Matter’ ‘Black Queer Lives Matter’ ‘All Black Lives Matter,’ Smith wrote. “As a black queer man myself, I was disappointed to see certain people eager to say Black Lives Matter, but hold their tongue when Trans/Queer was added. I want to reiterate this sentiment: if your revolution does not include Black Queer voices, it is anti-black.”

View this post on Instagram

@nckash and I protested today in New Orleans. We chanted ‘Black Trans Lives Matter’ ‘Black Queer Lives Matter’ ‘All Black Lives Matter’. As a black queer man myself, I was disappointed to see certain people eager to say Black Lives Matter, but hold their tongue when Trans/Queer was added. I want to reiterate this sentiment: if your revolution does not include Black Queer voices, it is anti-black. If your revolution is okay with letting black trans people like #TonyMcDade slip through the cracks in order to solely liberate black cishet men, it is anti-black. You are trying to push yourself through the door of a system designed against you, and then shut the door behind you. It is in our conditioning to get as close to whiteness, straightness, maleness as we can because that’s where the power is. And if we appeal to it, maybe it’ll give us a slice. But the revolution is not about appeal. It is about demanding what should have been given to us from the beginning. What should have been given to black, queer, and trans individuals from the beginning. Which is the right to exist. To live and prosper in public. Without fear of persecution or threat of violence. There is so much tragedy on the timeline these last couple of days so I added some photos of me and Nic to show some #blackboyjoy #blacklove #blackqueerlove ??????? You’ve been my rock and guiding light through all of this and I love you so much. I know that on the other side of this Is change, though the fight is far from over. #justicefortonymcdade #justiceforninapop #justiceforgeorgefloyd #justiceforahmaud #justiceforbreonna #sayhername #defundthepolice #endwhitesupremacy

A post shared by Justice Smith (@standup4justice) on

“There is so much tragedy on the timeline these last couple of days so I added some photos of me and Nic to show some #blackboyjoy #blacklove #blackqueerlove ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 ,” he continued. “You’ve been my rock and guiding light through all of this and I love you so much. I know that on the other side of this Is change, though the fight is far from over.”

Ashe features in the TV show Queen Sugar and appeared last year in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Broadway production, Choir Boy.

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