Actor Justice Smith, 24, best known for his roles in the TV show The Get Down and movies Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Pokémon Detective Pikachu, has revealed that he is queer and dating fellow actor, Nicholas Ashe.
Related: Olympian Guillaume Cizeron comes out by introducing his adorable boyfriend
In an Instagram posting, Smith said that he and Ashe had attended a rally in New Orleans together. Protests against police brutality and have been taking place in cities across the US in response to the death of an African American man, George Floyd, at the hands of police in Minneapolis two weeks ago.
Smith said that he noticed some fellow protestors were wary of chanting “Black Trans Lives Matter.”
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“@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.
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“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.”
Tony McDade was a black, trans man shot dead by police last month in Florida.
“You are trying to push yourself through the door of a system designed against you,” continued Smith, “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.”
Ashe features in the TV show Queen Sugar and appeared last year in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Broadway production, Choir Boy.
After news spread of Smith’s Instagram posting, he took to Twitter yesterday to say: “yo tf i didn’t come out, y’all came in.” The tweet has had over 150k likes and 16k retweets at the time of writing.
yo tf i didn’t come out, y’all came in
— Justice Smith (@standup4justice) June 6, 2020
Kangol2
Beautiful story, beautiful couple, so proud of both of them & the stances they’re taking!
linniejr
I do so agree with you that this was a beautiful story. Don’t be mad with this statement, this story about Smith being gay, is just like my telling my friends I’m black, when it’s obvious. I know my brothers and my sisters, no matter how young they are. The only thing that I didn’t like about his character in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, he did too much screeming lol.
It does me good to see young people stand up for who they are.
Crystix
Hell Yes! These are the stories we need right now. So happy for them and excited to rewatch detective pikachu. Such a good movie and even better now that it has a queer lead.
Black Pegasus
I wish these two young men all the best! And it’s my hope that they’re able to make a difference while making our presence known in the Black community.
PollyDarton
Love Love Love it! So very cool! Good luck to them. I so wish I knew who they were, though! Oh well.
hoosier1969
Congrats!!
He is also in “All the Bright Places.” The book and screenplay were written by the girl next door to me growing up! It is on Netflix.
HankHarris
I was happy to read this. It seems every week someone is finding it easier to live their truth and be public about themselves (J August Richards, hell yeah). I hope this helps other young promising actors take the leap.