Hollyoaks actor PJ Brennan reveals he gets taunts from gay people as well as straight

PinkNews logo on pink background with rainbow corners.

Gay soap star PJ Brennan, who plays Doug Carter on Channel 4’s Hollyoaks, claims he has been called homophobic names in real life.

The 27-year-old American born actor told the Daily Star that he was called “faggot Doug” on the street a few weeks ago and says “it makes me feel awful.”

He also reveals that he is not 100% comfortable about being gay: “The perception is that I should have had all this worked out by the time I got on a show that has put me in the spotlight for being gay. I’m still working it out, I’m very late in my own development.”

The actor says: “There are so many hurdles I need to get over.”

The negative comments are not just from straight people and he claims he also gets criticism from within the gay community: “A lot of gay men have tweeted me to say I have a gay haircut now, which is homophobic. Gay men tweet me and say I’m skinny or cry too much, so within the gay community there is self hatred.”

Brennan also states that he doesn’t want to be “a spokesperson or a role model, not in the traditional sense.”

Brennan posed with gay co-star Kieron Richardson for GT’s ‘Naked’ issue in support of the Terrence Higgins Trust last month.