Jussie Smollet’s brother Joqui Smollett (right) blames homophobia in the Black community for his conviction.
Jussie, 39, was convicted on March 10 of lying to police about a hate crime. A judge sentenced him to 150 days in the Cook County Jail.
However, on Wednesday, a judge ordered Jussie released on bond while his appeal is pending.
If you live in Chicago please be careful, the hate crime criminal who attacked Jussie Smollett was released from jail last night ? pic.twitter.com/7FCutIKULg
— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) March 17, 2022
In an interview with Revolt TV, Jocqui Smollett blamed rampant homophobia in the Black community for his brother’s conviction.
Jocqui said the prosecution used widespread homophobia in the Black community as leverage against Jussie, who is openly gay.
“Our community, innately, has a lot of homophobia in it,” said Jocqui.
“They leveraged that fact. They knew that, ultimately, Jussie was not gonna get the same type of support as a straight Black man. And it’s been obvious. I find it very difficult to believe that this ever would’ve gotten this far if Jussie was a straight Black man.”
Jussie came out as homosexual on the “Ellen Show”, after his character, Jamal Lyon, came out as gay on Fox TV’s soap opera “Empire” in 2015.
LGBT+ advocates celebrated Jussie and pressed Hollywood to increase visibility of Black and brown LGBT+ characters on TV and in films.
But Jussie fell from grace in 2019 after he was arrested for lying to police about an alleged hate crime. The actor claimed he was ambushed by 2 men on a bitterly cold January night in Chicago.
He told police the men shouted racial and homophobic slurs at him, tied a noose around his neck, and poured bleach on him.
Prosecutors later accused Jussie (right) of masterminding a hoax with two friends to elevate his status and salary on Empire.
Empire could not survive the scandal and the series was canceled in 2020.
