Reneé Rapp ‘constantly’ deals with internalised homophobia even after coming out

“I still have incredibly homophobic thoughts toward myself constantly. ‘Lesbian’ was not a good word for me to hear as a kid,” she said, “and now it’s something that I have such a close emotional connection to.”

The now-infamous line from her SNL appearance – where Rapp was introduced as “little lesbian intern, Reneé” – was originally supposed to be, “little bisexual intern”. However, the star told the outlet that she nervously asked non-binary writer Celeste Yim if they could change it. 

“They were so sweet — and obviously, they were going to be so sweet. But to me, I was thinking about being so afraid to publicly change my identity. I didn’t want anybody to be upset with me.”

The Sex Lives of College Girls star has spoken out before about navigating homophobia, particularly in her childhood. 

Rapp grew up in an area that she described as the “super a**-backwards and very conservative” location of Huntersville in North Carolina, where she recalled on the Call Her Daddy podcast that “everyone was super f**ked and homophobic. It just sucked.”