Anna Paquin attends the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on 19 January 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
True Blood‘s Anna Paquin had the best response after “bigots” tried to spread hate about her being a proud part of the LGBT+ community.
Since coming out as bisexual in 2010, Anna Paquin has continuously clapped back at discrimination against the LGBT+ community and spoken out about the prejudices bi people face in their everyday lives.
And in her most recent move, she told haters to “hit that unfollow button” because she isn’t going to stop being a proud bisexual anytime soon.
Paquin took to Instagram to celebrate International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia on 17 May, saying she was “sending love” to her LGBT+ “siblings”.
A day later, she shared another post ahead of Pride month and told the “folks who put their bigotry on display in the comment sections of my recent posts” they should “hit that unfollow button”.
In a follow-up, Paquin shared an example of one of the “bigots” in her comments, and thanked the “people who took on this a**hat”.
She shared screenshots of comments saying she is “sick in the head” and should “get some help”, from a person who said they don’t stand with “hate groups” including Black Lives Matter or the “fairy people”.
Paquin declared in her next post – which included a tribute to her “wonderful human” and True Blood co-star slash husband Stephen Moyer – that she is a “#proudbisexual”. She wrote: “If he doesn’t have a problem with it why should anyone else?”
The Flack star then reposted a picture from makeup artist and queer activist Matt Bernstein. In the photo, Bernstein is wearing makeup that reads “It’s not a phobia you’re just an a******”.
Paquin captioned her repost: “I would love for us to come up with a term that doesn’t paint the bigots as victims of ‘fear’…. thoughts?”
Across her various posts, she shared hashtags promoting bisexual pride and raising awareness about bi-erasure.
In a 2019 interview with PrideSource, Paquin shared that she resonated with her Flack character Robyn, who is also bisexual. She said that the character’s sexuality “just kind of casually drops” into the series, and it’s “not a thing because it shouldn’t be a thing”.
Paquin said she felt like “so many movies and shows” make a character’s sexuality “into a big deal” if they are “leading anything other than heteronormative lives”. She said: “It really shouldn’t be and isn’t.”
Paquin also weighed in on the debate in Hollywood around LGBT+ roles going to queer actors. She shared that she thinks “representation of people within our community is incredibly important”, but she said it’s “also putting a lot of pressure on people to come out in a public way that they may or may not be ready to do yet”.