“Fellow Travelers” Star Jonathan Bailey Speaks About The Importance Of Representation
Growing up in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell was an isolating experience for actor Jonathan Bailey. Not only was he growing up knowing he was gay but, being from the small Oxfordshire village meant he had no access to positive LGBTQIA+ representation.
Gay Times has honoured Bailey with their 2023 Changemakers Award and, in his interview, he chats about how his partnership with LGBTQIA+ organisation Just Like Us has helped him create realised and meaningful representation for youth.
“I wasn’t aware of any gay people around me…”
From a child growing up under the oppression of Margaret Thatcher’s anti-gay Section 28 law to sucking on Matt Bomer’s toes in Fellow Travelers, Bailey certainly knows how important it is to tell LGBTQIA+ stories.
His career reads like a highlight reel of positive queer male characters. One of his earliest roles was in Pheobe Waller-Bridge’s Crashing in which he played a repressed gay man, Sam. Bailey hit his stride in the mainstream with his role in Regency-era drama Bridgerton, but it’s his queer roles we truly appreciate.
He played John in the West End revival of Cock recently, which was critically acclaimed. His latest role in Fellow Travelers is a sweeping historical drama following the affair of two men from McCarthyism to the AIDS Crisis.
Bailey tells Gay Times about what it felt like growing up: “The media spun stories that were so negative towards the plight of the gay experience, so I didn’t really have access to anything that made me feel welcome or like I was going to be okay, and I was someone who was very aware of who I was,” he says.
This lack of well-rounded representation led him to seek to be the change that would have meant a world of difference for him as a closeted teen. Bailey is a sponsor with Just Like Us, a UK-based LGBTQIA+ youth charity that works to connect queer youth with resources and support through their Ambassador Programme and School Diversity Week.
When Bailey came across Just Like Us and their efforts to teach LGBTQIA+ allyship in schools and connect students with ambassadors, he found the work to be profoundly important. “Just Like Us really hit something that I felt was important,” he says. “One thing is, how can people describe what they’re feeling and experiencing if they don’t have the vocabulary and tools to do so?”
He continues: “I wonder what my life would’ve been like had there been the vocabulary and ambassadors coming into my school. It would’ve definitely helped me feel more secure and to blossom quicker. For me, that sort of confidence in myself has come later on in life because of not having that.”
