Former “Bachelor” Colton Underwood received well-wishes from several celebrities, including Billy Eichner and Dan Levy, after he came out as gay last week. But his announcement drew a fair number of critics, too.
Much of the ire was focused on the 29-year-old’s plans to document his coming out journey in an upcoming Netflix series featuring Olympian Gus Kenworthy as his “gay guide.” Others pointed to the fact that Underwood’s ex-girlfriend Cassie Randolph accused him of stalking her last year ― a point overlooked in many of last week’s reports.
Lance Bass summed up some of those less-than-enthusiastic sentiments during an appearance on “The Ben & Ashley I. Almost Famous” podcast last week.
“He’s definitely going to get a lot of backlash from the community at first,” the former *NSYNC star said in the interview. “There is a small percentage of the community that’s just going to not like the fact he came out this way, that he’s monetizing the experience.”
Bass said Underwood’s series would probably ultimately “help the [LGBTQ] community,” but that it would take some time.
“When you first come out, most people ... have no clue about the LGBT community,” he said. “They don’t know what the issues are, they have no idea because they’ve been so separated from that on purpose. So when someone comes out as a public figure, so many people immediately go to: ‘Screw that! It’s too late.’ They don’t like to support it because they don’t feel like you know what you’re talking about yet.”
Bass, 41, came out as gay in a 2006 interview with People magazine, later revealing he’d opened up about his sexuality to Britney Spears two years earlier. He married artist Michael Turchin in 2014.
In his “The Ben & Ashley I. Almost Famous” chat, the pop star drew parallels between his coming out experience and that of Underwood.
“I was kind of like in a ‘Bachelor Nation’ situation where 90% of my fans were women, and they all thought I was straight,” Bass said, adding that he’d advise the reality star to “sit back, listen and learn.”
“That’s all you need to do right now, is just listen to the community, listen to everyone around you,” he said. “Educate yourself, and then you’ll naturally find where you belong in this community.”
Listen to the full interview with Lance Bass below.