Comedians Call Out SNL for Not Casting Openly Gay Men: ‘They’re Bigoted’

Two comedians are speaking out against Saturday Night Live for not hiring openly gay men as cast members.

James Adomian, who is best known for his Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) impersonation during the 2016 election, auditioned for SNL 13 years ago and was openly gay at the time. And he told The Daily Beast that it’s “about time” the sketch comedy show hired gay men to be in front of the camera.

“It would be nice if they put a gay man on camera on that show,” Adomian said. “I’ve been out of the closet the whole time since I auditioned 13 years ago. You would think that they would have tried to put someone else on that was a gay man. It’s about time.”

As The Daily Beast pointed out, SNL has only had one openly gay male cast member in its entire 43 year history (Terry Sweeney, who only lasted one season in 1985-1986). Their next openly gay cast member wouldn’t come until 2012 when they hired Kate McKinnon.

However, comedian Jake Weisman believes that Adomian not being hired by SNL wasn’t an accident.

“Because he’s gay. Because they’re bigoted,” Weisman declared.

Adomian called out creator/executive producer Lorne Michaels, accusing him of being “afraid of America’s dads.”

“It certainly didn’t help that I was openly gay,” Adomian recalled. “I think that Lorne Michaels is afraid of America’s dads, ‘I’m not gonna let my kid watch a show with a gay man.’”

While Adomian was hopeful that  “sooner or later” there would be more inclusion, Weisman wasn’t so optimistic.

“The guy at the top’s the same, people are just calling it out more,” Weisman said.

[image via screengrab]

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