Jesse Tyler Ferguson's 'Modern Family' Role Gives Him A Depressing "Superpower"

By Andrew Sanford | Celebrity | August 7, 2024 |

By Andrew Sanford | Celebrity | August 7, 2024 |

Remember Rick Santorum?! If you just got a weird, spider-bite-like nagging feeling at the back of your head it means you do! Santorum was a United States Senator. He was a talking head on CNN when they needed a s***ty Conservative for no reason. That is until he was too s***ty. Santorum was also loudly and proudly against gay marriage. That made it especially odd when he requested to take a picture with Eric Stonestreet ten years ago.

Stonestreet attended the White House Correspondents dinner a year before gay marriage became legal. Stonestreet is not gay, but he played Cameron Tucker, one half of an openly gay couple, on Modern Family. That at least half explains why Santorum’s people approached him for a picture with the bigoted Senator and his kids. Stonestreet said at the time that he wouldn’t take a picture with Santorum but would take one with the kids. Good on Cam! Politicians should pay a price for their actions, even if that affects their families. Judge not, lest ye be judged (I think that’s from an episode of Star Trek).

It is awesome that Stonestreet stood up for the people he’s representing on TV. That said, it was a bit easier for him to do so. He is a straight man. That’s likely why Santorum even considered the picture to begin with. It also helps that Modern Family was insanely popular and no politician will pass up a good photo op (even if it makes them look wildly hypocritical). Even Stonestreet’s onscreen partner, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, was subjected to odd interactions due to Modern Family’s immense fame.

Unlike Stonestreet, Ferguson is an openly gay man in real life. He recently sat down with Nicole Byer for his podcast Dinner’s On Me and recalled being subjected to homophobia for simply living his life. “I had been in Las Vegas a few years earlier [pre-Modern Family], and I sort of got gay bashed a little bit,” he explained to Byer. he continued, saying, “This was before… It wasn’t anything violent, but it was definitely like, there was negative energy coming at me from a couple that felt uncomfortable around me and my then-boyfriend.”

That sucks! People should be able to walk down the street with the person they love without feeling hatred from ignorant onlookers. It turns out that starring on a big TV show helps that. “I went [back] after Modern Family, and I remember feeling that same negativity initially, but then they would see who it was and they would recognize me from being, ‘Oh, I am gay, but I’m also that gay one from TV and I like that show,’ and there would be a change,” Ferguson said. “‘I guess it’s funny, so I guess he’s not terrible,’” Byer joked.

Ferguson continued to reflect on the moment, saying, “Yeah. And it was really weird.” Referring to his star-hungry onlookers, he said, “Your initial [feeling] — I saw it happen — was disgust. Like, let’s process this.” There was a positive that came out of it at least. The actor does acknowledge that the show does keep him safer. “But also there was this like some weird superpower that I felt like I was being protected by this role that I was also playing, and it kind of gave me this coat of armor, and I had this protection of being this character that people also loved. I don’t know, it was really weird,” the actor explained.

It is weird! And it sucks, big time. Getting an unsuccessful TV show is hard enough, much less one that makes a seismic cultural impact. It shouldn’t take that for someone to be able to walk down the street comfortably. Still, we have a lot of dumb, hateful people in this world.