Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Entertainment, Netflix, News, Donald Trump, LGBTQ, Social Media
Kit Roberts
Topics: Entertainment, Netflix, News, Donald Trump, LGBTQ, Social Media
People have reacted to Trump's condemnation of a gay military drama in an unexpected manner.
The eight-part drama Boots focusses on the experiences of a gay man who is serving in the US military, and drew criticism from the president for its depiction of the LGBTQ+ community.
Trump and his administration have made no secret of their disdain for the LGBTQ+ community, taking measures including banning books which feature gay and queer characters and relationships, and condemning any media which depicts homosexuality in a positive light.
Perhaps most pertinently to this drama, Trump's administration has also worked towards banning transgender people from serving in the military.
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The drama is based on the 2015 memoir of US marine sergeant Greg Cope White The Pink Marine, which tells of his own experiences as a closeted gay man from Texas who joins the Marine Corps in the 1990s, when gay people were still prohibited from joining the military.
Trump's government slammed the miniseries, accusing Netflix of feeding 'woke garbage to their audience and children'.
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But many people have taken Trump's condemnation of the series as a sign that it's probably worth a watch, because if Trump doesn't like it that means it's probably saying or exploring something important.
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It's like people just forget about the Streisand Effect when talking publicly about something they don't like.
Taking to social media, one person wrote: "Well I'm definitely going to watch it now."
A second posted: "Damn now I really need to watch it," while a third said: "That’s what made me start it."
Lead actor Miles Heizer, who is gay himself, spoke of the series' importance as the US shifts ever further to the right under Trump.
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He told Variety: "When the show started filming [in 2023], I don’t think we intended to have this message that’s so relevant to serving today.
"But then of course as we’re making it, all these things started happening. It’s very interesting that Boots shines a light on what’s actually happening now, even though the show is set in 1990. It’s upsetting."
Cope White spoke previously about his inspiration for the book in an interview with Forbes.
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He said: "It made me think of the hell that I went through in boot camp and how difficult it was to survive that, but I just kept putting one boot in front of the other.
"I knew that it would hopefully get better, but when you’re in it, it’s awful."