Abbott Elementary may not be an entirely realistic depiction of what it's like to be a teacher, but it's pretty spot-on when it comes to representing the queer community.
This was important to the show's star Quinta Brunson, who insisted on having at least one gay character in the ABC sitcom—we say at least one, because somebody else didn't make the cut. "There was another character originally who was queer, but the network thought we had too many characters," she told The Hollywood Reporter Aug. 8. "I [thought] that was fair. I really didn't want to not have a queer character on my show—I just don't think that's realistic."
So they made Jacob, played by Chris Perfetti, the show's sole gay lead, and his sexual identity is deliberately introduced casually, when he mentions his boyfriend (who later makes appearances in the series). For Quinta, this felt like the obvious choice, saying, "There are so many queer people in my life, and they never had to come out to me. I wanted the audience to feel that way."
She shared that some viewers pushed back against the inclusion of a queer character, but it wasn't as intense as one would expect. "I was shocked, actually, to see a very small amount of people say, 'I'm not watching the show anymore,'" Quinta said, adding that this was of little consequence to the show's ratings. "First of all, I know they didn't stop watching."
Even if there was a negative response, Quinta wouldn't have cared. As she said, "It's important to me to make people more comfortable in this world. I just want my friends to live freely out here."
While Quinta was insistent on realistically portraying the LGBTQ+ community, she's less eager to tackle other social justice issues, like the prevalence of school shootings. As she explained, these incidents are not commonly discussed among schoolteachers that she knows. "They don't have time for that stuff," she explained. "These aren't people who are on Twitter. They have to do their job, and the world is small."
As for what's to come in season two, Quinta previously teased at San Diego Comic-Con that there's going to be 22 episodes, nine more than season one's 13. "We spent a lot of the first season showing what this show is capable of," she said. "Now we get to have some fun."
Abbott Elementary is streaming now on Hulu.