We're glad Empire brings attention to gay rights – Cookie and Lucious Lyon

Empire television series stars, Taraji P. Henson (Cookie Lyon) and Terrence Howard (Lucious Lyon) say they are pleased to be part of a show that projects the issue of gay rights.

The two believe that the show provides a perfect platform for the issue of gay rights to be highlighted and addressed.

Cookie and Lucious Lyon were reacting to the backlash the show has received from people who say the show is unnecessarily promoting gay practice.

The show has a huge global following and is watched in countries where it is a crime to be gay.

Recently, rapper 50 Cent shared a post that said: “There are 3 million fewer viewers who tuned into last night’s Empire episode!!!! did you watch it? We could not take the extra gay stuff or celebrity stuff last night!!!!”
The rapper later said “EMPIRES TV RATINGS TOOK A HUGE HIT. Ok, I’ll stop now.

COOKIE CALL ME BABY. I’ll tell everybody to watch the show for you. LOL”.
Commenting on the criticism, Lucious Lyon told Myjoyonline.com in an exclusive interview that people have the right to choose their sexual preference.

“You’ve got to remember that the creator of the show, Lee Daniels is happily gay. The show runner, Ilene Chaiken, she is gay but in this day and age, everybody makes choices for what they do and what people do in private with their sexual preference has nothing to do with what is going on with the rest of the world and what people do behind closed doors shouldn’t be brought up in anybody else’s sense of conversation.”

Cookie adding her voice to the issue also told Myjoyonline.com that, “That’s how it should work but since it doesn’t, I am glad that our show brings attention to what is going on because it's real and do you not love your child because they are different?”
“I think we have started a lot of conversations in homes who want to sweep it under the carpet and you need to have conversations, children are killing themselves because they are afraid to be themselves and we can’t have that,” she noted.

The star actress asked, “Who wakes up and go ‘hey I want to be gay? Who does that? Knowing what comes with it?’ and added that, “So I am so glad and I’m part of this show that exposes it, that makes you deal with it and if you are afraid to deal with it and you can’t watch the show, that says a lot about it.”

Lucious urged those who seem to have a problem with the gay content in the show “there [are] always other channels you can watch if you don’t want to see the truth about what’s taking place in the world and like Taraji said come face to face with what may be happening in your family but behind closed doors or in the closet in your family.”

“You deal with your issues or they will deal with you,” Cookie concluded.

The Empire series tells the story of hip-hop artiste and CEO of Empire Entertainment, Lucious Lyon, who has always ruled unchallenged.

A medical diagnosis predicts he will be incapacitated for three years, which prompts the sharks to circle. Without further damaging his family, he must decide which of his three sons will take over.

His favourite, young Hakeem played by Bryshere Y. Gray, is a gifted musician but values fame over hard work. Middle son, Jamal, is talented and shy but gay, embarrassing to Lyon.

The oldest, Andre, played by Trai Byers, is business-minded but lacks charisma. The reappearance of Cookie, his ex-wife, complicates things; she says he owes her for taking the fall for the drug-running that financed his early career.