‘Queer Eye’ Star Karamo Brown Had to Learn What Being Pansexual Meant After His Son Came out

Karamo Brown is one of the most influential people in Hollywood as one of the cast members of Queer Eye. Before the show, he made history on an MTV reality show. In a recent sitdown on Tamron Hall, Brown spoke about his work on reality television and his son also joined the interview to talk about their book.

Karamo Brown on being the first openly black gay man on reality television

If you remember correctly, Brown was the very first openly gay black man to be on reality television. In the years since his debut in 2004 on MTV’s The Real World: Philadelphia, Brown says there is still work left to do.

“There’s still a need for more people of the LGBTQIA community to be seen. There’s a need for more women to be seen in television. There’s a need for more people of color, from different religious backgrounds, because our world is so rich and diverse and people need to hear these stories,” he told Hall.

How Karamo Brown reacted to his son coming out

Later in the interview, Brown and Hall were joined by his son, Jason “Rachel” Brown. The two co-author the book, I Am Perfectly Designed.

When Hall asked Jason “Rachel” about being pansexual, he said, “It means basically I’m attracted to whomever I love,” he said. “I told my dad late. I told my friends first.”

“We’ve always been having open conversations about sex when he was younger because I didn’t have anyone to talk to me,” Karamo said.“Even though I’m a gay man, when he [Jason ‘Rachel’] said he identified as pansexual, I had no idea what that meant. I had to go to Google real quickly…I had to be the one to break it to the rest of the family.”

What Karamo Brown really thinks of ‘Queer Eye’

The Queer Eye reboot is wildly popular and the cast just wrapped the latest season of the show. But what are Brown’s actual thoughts about his own series?

“This show was intended to give people hope and inspire them, and especially in the time we’re at right now, people are not talking to each other, families are divided because of politics, because of all these issues and, for me, especially the one who works on the emotional and mental side of it, it’s ‘how can I give people tips to feel better about their lives and know that they can live their best lives,’” he said.

Tamron Hall airs weekdays in syndication. Queer Eye returns to Netflix in 2020.