Jussie Smollett Breaks Social Media Silence, Making First Instagram Post In Four Months To Celebrate Pride

Following all of the drama that surrounded him over the past few months, Jussie Smollett has finally reemerged on social media.

Prior to the new post, the last image that was posted on his account came back on January 29, with Smollett posing in jeans and a white button-down shirt. That same Instagram post also shared a few photos of the weather in Chicago as well as a video of himself performing. Since then, Smollett has been radio silent on Instagram until finally returning to the platform with a post last night to celebrate Pride Month.

In the video shared with his 5 million-plus followers, Jussie shared a clip from this weekend’s Tony Awards. Tarrell Alvin McCraney, who was the screenwriter behind the hit film Moonlight, is seen giving a speech at the Tonys while he discusses his latest project — Choir Boy. The Broadway smash was nominated for best play at Sunday’s award show, and it obviously resonates with an openly gay Smollett, as it follows a young, gay black high schooler who is the star of his school’s gospel choir but receives hate from many classmates.

“His community accepted his gift but diminished his light,” McCraney told the audience. “The bodies that uphold the great legacy of spirituals are often black and queer. When will we love all of them for who they are, not just for what they can do?”

In the caption of the post, Smollett tagged McCraney and let his followers know that he has a lot of pride. The actor disabled the comments on the post, but it still garnered over 237,000 views in addition to 30,000 likes since it went live on his account yesterday. As mentioned before, this marks the first post since Jussie’s name made headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Back in January, Smollett told police that he was attacked by two men in Chicago, claiming that he was a victim of a hate crime. But by March, Jussie was indicted on 16 counts of disorderly conduct after it was revealed that he filed a false police report. Since the beginning, Jussie has maintained that his story was factual but shortly after the charges were filed, they were dropped by State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. The Chicago Police Department still stand by their findings that Smollett staged the attack.

@Variety @JoeOtterson This is not factual. Jussie will NOT be returning to Empire. -LD

— Lee Daniels (@leedanielsent) June 4, 2019

And following all of the backlash from the alleged attack, The Inquisitr recently shared that Smollett would not be returning to his hit show, Empire. Series’ creator, Lee Daniels, shut down rumors of Smollett returning for another season after he responded to a tweet that suggested that “multiple production sources” were thinking of having the embattled actor return.

“This is not factual,” Daniels tweeted. “Jussie will NOT be returning to Empire.”

It will be interesting to see if Jussie continues to post on Instagram now that he has broken his silence.