Millie Bobby Brown speaks out after leaving Twitter following anti-gay abuse
Millie Bobby Brown speaks on stage at an event for Stranger Things (Rodin Eckenroth/Getty)
Millie Bobby Brown has responded to the hateful posts which saw her leave Twitter.
The star of Netflix’s Stranger Things deleted her account after a meme spread which depicted her as a murderous homophobe.
But the 14-year-old actor put on a brave face on her Instagram story, posting a video of her smiling, winking and sticking her tongue out, all above a caption which read: “good vibes only.”
The actor seemed to be coping just fine, thankfully (milliebobbybrown/instagram)
The meme’s recent rise in popularity – after it started out with the hateful hashtag #TakeDownMillieBobbyBrown – has been somewhat ironic, but in general, it has a deeply sinister tone.
Brown smiles during her Instagram video (milliebobbybrown/instagram)
Many have pointed out that Brown, who was one of the first recipients of MTV’s gender-neutral awards last year, has long been a vocal supporter of LGBT rights.
This has not stopped the damaging meme from spreading, however, with one popular tweet posted on May 12 saying “Millie bobby brown arriving at pride” above a video of someone driving a car into several protesters.
Millie Bobby Brown attends the 2018 Time 100 Gala (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty)
Many of the posts attribute obviously false quotes like “We don’t need gun control, we need faggot patrol” to the British star.
One tweet, for instance, shows a Snapchat post by the actor with “just ran over a faggot cant wait to kill all these gays off” photoshopped over it.
Posted by someone who called the original Snap – not this one – a “photoshop” (psychosociaal/twitter)
And another obviously doctored image says: “I hate the word homophobia. It’s not a phobia. Why would I be scared of a faggot?”
Terrible (godcyruss/twitter)
The star had 2.28 million followers before she deactivated the account.
Ironically, it appears her last post was a quote-tweet of the Being Me Campaign, an anti-bullying group.
There has been a backlash against the meme, especially since Brown deleted her account, with one user writing that “pretending millie bobby brown, a literal child, is a violent homophobe for memes is f**king disgusting and not funny at all.
Thank goodness for people like this (zunbarya/twitter)
“You are grown adults, editing photos of her with captions that include the f slur, violence against lgbt community for comedy and it’s f**king gross.”
They continue: “She is a f**king child and you are cracking jokes about her hating gay people and wanting to kill them when she hasn’t done anything wrong?
Millie Bobby Brown onstage at PaleyFest (Frazer Harrison/Getty)
“You could genuinely cause so much damage to her reputation and it’s weird as f**k.”
Another fan wrote that “yall evil as f**k for ruining millie bobby brown like this shes a literal angel and her career could end cause of some dumbasses who think using violent homophobic memes with a minor is funny.”
A lot of salient points here (neiboltst/twitter)
And one said – with receipts – that “MILLIE BOBBY BROWN SUPPORTS LGBTQ+.”
(losershawkins/twitter)
Brown’s exit from Twitter follows Stranger Things actor Noah Schnapp feeling like he had to clear up speculation over his character’s sexuality at the age of 12.
Schnapp wrote on Instagram after season one that he didn’t want Will to be stereotyped, and that his character’s sexual orientation was “besides the point.”
