Years & Years singer Olly Alexander gets "gay hate" on Twitter.
The ‘Desire’ hitmaker admits the "homophobic" trolls targeting him online are getting him down and making him stay offline.
Olly – who has been an outspoken advocate of LGBT rights – told NME magazine: "I get trolled. The usual stuff – sometimes it’s homophobic, like gay hate. But I don’t understand why people ‘@’ me on Twitter to say ‘Olly Alexander can’t sing’ or ‘Olly Alexander, you’re ugly as f**k’."
Years & Years have a Twitter following of more than 375,000 but Olly, who has 117,000 followers on his personal account, says he often receives Twitter abuse after he’s been on television with his bandmates Mike Goldsworthy and Emre Türkmen.
He explained: "If we’ve been on TV I don’t go on Twitter for a while after. I get some people who are really gross and make rape jokes about me. It’s f***d up. That’s why I can’t read too much any more because I don’t need to be seeing that s**t."
Olly – who is dating Clean Bandit violinist Neil Amin-Smith – has previously opened up about the homophobic abuse he has received in public, including being "spat" whilst growing up in Coleford, in Gloucestershire, South West England.
Olly – who quit the town when he was 18 – said: "I’ve been called names in the street and hit and spat at. Growing up and moving to London was all I longed to do … Homophobia is less overt, sure, but it’s still with us in insidious, institutionalised forms.
"Gays are still the ‘Other’, they’re apparently less likely to fix your car or play football. And we do we want them to be teachers? These questions are still around."
Olly Alexander has to deal with homophobic Twitter trolls
