Love Island star explains why he’s ‘protective’ of his gay brother
Eyal and Tal Booker. (David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for MCH STUDIO)
Love Island star Eyal Booker has opened up about feeling “protective” of his gay brother, while encouraging other straighter people to call out casual homophobia.
During a talk with older brother Tal, on his podcast It’s Not That Deep, Eyal revealed that he felt a sense of “responsibility” for his sibling.
In an episode titled The Word Gay and All the Negativity That Surrounds It, the pair talked about how the word “gay” was often used as a slur at the beginning of the 21st century. Tal, a tattooist, joked that he heard someone say: “You shouldn’t iron your shirt because that’s gay.”
He’d also been told having a tattoo was gay.
Eyal said: “It was weaponised but it was also used with ease in such a throwaway way that nobody would even question [it]. Parents would use it, kids would use it. People would generally use it to describe things.”
Eyal said he felt “protective” of his family and also admitted having his own male celebrity crush: Aussie Avengers star Chris Hemsworth.
Tal said: “I still almost pause when I say it, that I am gay, because it feels I’m insulting myself, that’s what I knew for so long. I think I said on the last episode we did: the only time I really knew anyone was gay was when they were being bullied for it.”
Tal explained it still feels “uncomfortable” to call himself gay and he often has to “come out on a daily basis”.
The pair urged people: “Call out your friends when they [use] it, [there is] no room for jokes”.
Tal went on to say: “It’s easy for a cisgender straight white man to make those jokes but they’re not the marginalised ones… so they can’t make the jokes. I can make a joke, you can’t. If you’re not that thing, you don’t have the right to joke about it.”
Eyal took part in Love Island in 2018 and went on to appear on Celebs on the Ranch, Celebs Go Dating and The X Factor: Celebrity.
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