By Barrett White
Daisy Boy is the show every queer youth needed in their tweens and teens. While many of us held on to shows like Daria or Lizzie McGuire to comfort the outcast within us, Daisy Boy is the gay answer that we were looking for.
“I was literally slapped across the face with this idea in 2017 when my friend quoted The Lizzie McGuire Movie to me,” says openly gay actor, writer, and show creator AJ Knight, who is currently crowdfunding Daisy Boy on Kickstarter until the end of May. “After I obviously quoted it right back to her, the light bulb went off.”
Daisy Boy, Knight explains, is a regular high school boy who happens to be unapologetically gay—flamboyant and fabulous, and here to stay.
The only problem is, he’s not real.
He’s a figment of the imagination of Jameson, a wallflower-type growing up in a suburban town in the South. “Truthfully, I don’t want the South to be the villain of Daisy Boy,” Knight says. “I think this is a story that could take place in the South, in New York, or anywhere. The focus isn’t on how southern people can be mean to gay people; the focus is on how people can be mean to people. And how we deal with that.”
Knight says that growing up in the South himself—he’s originally from Houston—was remarkably easy. “I’m very lucky,” he says. “I have parents who have supported me in everything I have ever wanted to do. I wanted to play Barbies until I was in sixth grade? Great. Do theater? Great, we’ll be there in the front row. Crimp my sister’s hair from root to tip on Thanksgiving? Great—hideous, but great.”
Coming out was more difficult, but Knight did his best to see the situation from his parents’ point of view as well. “With my parents, it wasn’t that they didn’t love me—things just change when your kid comes out,” he says. “Suddenly, they think you won’t grow up to marry who they always dreamed you would. Or they won’t get to be grandma and grandpa like they thought they would. Or you’re going to have a really, really hard life and they want to protect you from that.”
“I think if I would’ve known that they needed time to adjust, and didn’t just expect them to be A-Okay with me being gay from the get go, I think it would’ve been easier for me,” he adds. “So I really want to try and spread that message to kids coming out. Just understand that your parents need time to come to terms with your sexuality, the same way that you did.”
Per the absolutely fabulous Kickstarter video, Knight, “the queer boy who wrote this queer TV show,” plans to cast queer actors for the queer roles (“my f*cking God,” he cheekily exasperates at the revolutionary concept). There is no shortage of examples of straight actors portraying queer characters in Hollywood—Timothée Chalamet, Cate Blanchett, Rachel Weisz, and Jake Gyllenhaal have all done exceptional jobs portraying the nuance and beauty that their respective queer characters deserved. While these actors’ talents may beautifully shine through and provide a respectful view of the characters’ lives, Knight says that this issue boils down to opportunity. “Who are you auditioning for those parts? Are you auditioning gay actors to play the gay characters? Or are you just bringing in the actors who the bigwigs have decided would sell enough tickets?” Knight asks. “There are significantly fewer queer actors with a résumé that a bigwig would sign off on, because there has been significantly less opportunity for us to build those résumés. We need people to take chances on the queer community, and trust that we will be able to, more than likely, portray a queer person better than a straight person can.”
The Kickstarter video—which has no fewer than four costume changes and is filmed like a teary-eyed burlesque dream—promises a story for “the Ls, the Gs, the Bs, the Ts, the Q-I-As, and the in-betweens” in a cute on-beat number like Knight is preparing to willkommen us to the Kit Kat Klub. “We put so much into this campaign to show that maybe I’m not Steven Spielberg, but it doesn’t mean that I can’t make something people can believe in,” Knight says.
Should the show find its funding (through Kickstarter or otherwise), Knight hopes it bolsters strength in queer youth who see themselves in Daisy Boy and Jameson. “When you’re coming to terms with the person you’re becoming, it can be hard,” he says. “Especially for queer people in the closet, because you’re going through it alone and in silence. So if you could be coming to terms with your identity, and watching Jameson do the same thing on TV, it might make you not feel like you’re the only one. I hope Daisy Boy makes people feel a little less fucked up.”
Daisy Boy’s Kickstarter campaign runs now through May 30, 2019. To donate, click here.
