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Shortly after opening up about the sexual abuse he faced as a child, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star Joshua Bassett is having to defend himself from trolls. And he's doing an amazing job.
Bassett, who released a trio of brand new songs earlier this month, said that one of the tracks was about processing the sexual abuse he survived in childhood. Unfortunately, some hateful trolls online took that as an invitation to hurl even more abuse at him.
Bassett clapped back at a disgusting troll who tweeted "Men can't be raped it's just a fact. If your a man who claims to have gotten raped go put on a dress" in response to the news of the sexual abuse Bassett faced.
"And we wonder why more people don't come forward," Bassett wrote in a post on his Instagram Story, calling out the troll for their ridiculous statement. "Started when I was 5. You haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about and how damaging it is."
Hell yeah, Joshua, way to stand up, not only for yourself, but for other similar victims! So often sexual abuse of men and boys is erased, and Bassett is having none of that. This is real hero behavior.
Bassett recently revealed in an interview with GQthat he experienced a lot of sexual abuse as a child. "I didn't remember that until last year, which is pretty insane," he said. "I buried it so far. And when I was a teen, a much older man routinely abused me, and I wasn't able to see it for what it was at the time."
One of the three songs he released at the time, "Set Me Free," is partially about processing that trauma, and he called it "an anthem for me and the sort of people who've held pain and power over me my whole life," saying "you've taken so much from me, but you don't get to take all of me."
Bassett, who came out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community back in May, says he plans to open up more about the abuse he faced in a new podcast he'll host that will delve into "heavy talks." He wants to "hopefully help people who are experiencing that," and wants it to be "the podcast that I wish I had when I was a kid."
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