Joshua Bassett has a message about loving who you want. The 20-year-old High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star shared a message about sexuality after a clip went viral of him seemingly hinting at coming out during an interview.
In the clip, Bassett calls Harry Styles "hot" and says, "This is also my coming out video, I guess, uhhh." On Tuesday, Bassett said it was OK to still be "figuring out who you are."
"My entire life people have told me my sexuality," he Instagrammed. "People have shamed me for things they know nothing about. I want to say thank you to those of you who stand for love and acceptance. Toxicity, hatred and negativity say less about the subject but say far more about those who spew it."
"It's 2021. We are the generation of love & growth, it's time we start acting like it," he continued. "Whether you love me, hate me, or damn me to hell, I love you all the same."
Bassett implored his followers to "love who you love shamelessly."
"It's ok to still be figuring out who you are," he wrote. "Life's too short to let ignorance and hatred win. I choose love. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜."
Along with his message, Bassett shared video of him singing and playing a keyboard.
"I'm breaking the spell. I'm mending the cycle," he sings. "Been going through hell. Need more than survival. If I don't work this out, I'll probably pass it down again. The time for change is now. It's my life. It's my life to live."
ET spoke to Bassett in March, and he talked about his self-titled EP and all the speculation that his High School Musical: The Musical: The Series co-star Olivia Rodrigo's smash hit, "Drivers License," is about him and his rumored girlfriend, Sabrina Carpenter, and that his song "Lie Lie Lie" is a rebuttal.
"Plain and simple, it's just not," he said, sharing that he and Rodrigo laughed about the drama that followed them amid the release of their music. "Of course, yeah. Olivia's amazing. We were filming the season throughout everything going on, and all is well. And we finished strong, and it was really great."
"I think the songs speak for themselves. That's really the truth," he also said of his new music. "It's funny for me to see people speculate or make theories about things. I don't see a lot of it, but what I see, I'm like, 'Where are you getting this from?' It's so funny how people piece it together. But I get it. We're all in quarantine. Everybody's got nothing to do, so everyone's trying to make more meaning out of something than there is."
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