Billy Eichner used his appearance at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards Sunday to rebuke the Supreme Court and push for more queer love stories onscreen.
The actor and comedian is on a promotional tour for his new movie, “Bros,” which co-stars Luke Macfarlane. Due out next month, the film is an LGBTQ-inclusive romantic comedy, a comparative rarity in Hollywood. Its principal cast consists entirely of LGBTQ actors, who will play both queer and heterosexual characters.
Before introducing the band Panic! at the Disco at the VMAs Sunday, Eichner urged fans to “all [be] there in theaters on September 30” for his new film. Doing so, he claimed, would send a message to the Supreme Court and to conservative lawmakers who have proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation nationwide.
“We need to show all the homophobes like [Supreme Court Justice] Clarence Thomas, and all the homophobes on the Supreme Court, that we want gay love stories and we support LGBTQ people,” Eichner said. (For the record, Supreme Court justices are not in charge of greenlighting romantic comedies.)
“We are not letting them drag us back into the last century, because they are in the past and ‘Bros’ is the future,” Eichner continued. “Are you with me, VMAs?”
Various ultraconservative Supreme Court rulings have lately sparked justified concerns among many Americans about the future of LGBTQ rights, including same-sex marriage.
When the court in June struck down Roe v. Wade ― eliminating the federal right to access abortion services that had existed for nearly 50 years ― Thomas wrote a concurring opinion. In it, he urged his fellow justices to reconsider other cases that rest on the right to privacy — including cases protecting contraception access and LGBTQ relationships.
Eichner has been outspoken in his disapproval of the recent Supreme Court rulings. Still, he’s emphasized that his approach to “Bros,” which he co-wrote, was not only political but personal.
“It’s about equity,” he told Variety in June. “It’s about showing people, it’s great that a straight actor can win an Oscar for playing gay, but look how funny and hilarious and warm and delightful LGBTQ actors can be in a wide variety of roles that we don’t normally get to play.”