Disney Channel
- Raven-Symoné said she “didn’t feel comfortable” with her character being gay in “Raven’s Home.”
- She said in an interview with Them that Disney wanted Raven Baxter to be queer in the reboot.
- Raven-Symoné said that she wanted to separate her personal identity from Raven Baxter.
Raven-Symoné said that she told Disney producers that she didn’t want her character to come out as gay in the “That’s So Raven” reboot, “Raven’s Home.”
In 2017, Raven-Symoné and Anneliese van der Pol reprised their roles as Raven Baxter and Chelsea Daniels in a new Disney Channel show. The spinoff, which premiered roughly 10 years after the first series ended, followed the best friends after they’d grown up and had their own children.
During a video interview for Them, published on YouTube last week, Raven-Symoné said that she didn’t think it was a good enough reason for Raven to be gay in the reboot just because the actor had come out as gay.
“I think Disney wanted her to be queer in the beginning and I just didn’t feel comfortable doing that,” she said. “They were like, ‘Do you want Raven to be gay?’ I said, ‘Why?’ [and they said,] ‘Because you are.’ I said, ‘Bad, bad reason. That’s a bad reason.'”
Raven-Symoné continued: “No, Raven Baxter never exhibited any type of sexual identity situation in the priors. I’m not being myself on this show, I’m being a character. Raven Baxter’s not gay. No matter what the first four seasons looked like, with me and Chelsea sleeping in the same room and us raising a family together. Okay, that’s not the case. We are friends. Who sleep in the same room.
Raven-Symoné also said that she didn’t think Raven should date anyone in the spinoff
It’s so funny because we’re working on the sixth season now and I’m talking to the EPs and they’re like, ‘And you’re gonna start dating?'” she said. “I’m like, ‘She don’t need to date either. She’s just gonna be nothing.'”
This is not the first time the Disney star has talked about not wanting her Raven to be gay.
Last year, she said on the “Pride” podcast that she was “proud to play” Raven Baxter even though the character is straight.
“The reason I said no wasn’t because I wasn’t proud of who I was, or I didn’t want to represent the LGBTQ+ community in any way,” Raven-Symoné said. “It was because Raven Baxter is Raven Baxter is Raven Baxter and there was no reason for me to change the human that she was in order to fit the actress that played her.”
She added: “She was divorced though and I had no worries about saying no boyfriend.”
