Heartstopper’s Sebastian Croft re-releases ‘Queer was always here’ charity t-shirt
After raising £150,000 for the LGBTQ+ charities, there's only two more days to get your hands on the adorable queer dinosaur T.
Words: Emily Maskell; pictures: Supplied
There’s not long before the chance to nab one of Sebastian Croft’s adorable ‘Queer was always here’ charity t-shirts is over.
Following a phenomenal first run earlier this summer that raised £150,000 for LGBTQ charities Choose Love and Rainbow Railroad, the t-shirt has been re-released for a limited time only, with pre-orders set to end on Wednesday 14 September.
Co-designed by the Heartstopper star Croft, 20, and artist Kieran Blakey with Everpress, the white t-shirt features an orange and blue illustration of design of two dinosaurs kissing against a blue forest
“Often being queer is sold as a choice or watered down to a trend. But it’s not, and exists across nature,” the 20-year-old actor shared upon the shirt’s intial release.
To everyone who bought a ‘queer was always here’ t-shirt THANK YOU. because of you, we have raised 150K for @chooselove and @RainbowRailroad 🥺🦕🏳️🌈💖🏳️⚧️
all of this money will go directly to helping queer refugees, especially those escaping crisis situations. pic.twitter.com/fOFeGyf2m2— Sebastian Croft (@SebastianCroft) August 31, 2022
“We’re also robbed of a lot of gay history, and can easily forget how long we have been here for […] I wanted to remind people with this T-Shirt, that queer has not just always been here throughout human history, but almost definitely predates us.”
Croft plays a key character in Netlfix’s beloved Heartstopper, a show that offers an optimistic lens of young LGBTQ+ love and joy. As Ben Hope, Croft brings the life of a closeted school bully to life with careful consideration of his secret ‘romance’ with the show’s lead, Charlie (Joe Locke).
Croft’s Heartstopper co-star Kit Connor also modelled the shirt proudly as the Heartstopper cast marched together at Pride in London.
i caught these photos of some of the heartstopper cast at pride <3 pic.twitter.com/h8EQNnyM6c
— heather rose 🙂 (@ohnarose) July 2, 2022
Connor and Croft were joined at Pride in London by fellow Heartstopper cast-mates Joe Locke, Tobie Donovan (Isaac Henderson), Corrina Brown (Tara Jones), Kizzy Edgell (Darcy Olsson), Rhea Norwood (Imogen Heaney) and Jenny Walser (Tori Spring).
As well as the upcoming second and third seasons of Heartstopper coming in the future, Croft is otherwise being kept busy as the leading man in Prime Video’s original British rom-com, How To Date Billy Walsh.
Croft will star as teenage Archie opposite Bridgerton’s Charithra Chandran in the upcoming film directed by Alex Sanjiv Pillai.
Croft and Chandran play childhood best friends but things grow complicated when Archie realises he is in love with her, just as he builds up the courage to share his feelings, American transfer student Billy Walsh (Tanner Buchanan) arrives and captures Amelia’s (Chandran) attention much to Archie’s dismay.
Croft’s Heartstopper co-stars are staying busy ahead of new Heartstopper seasons; Joe Locke and Will Goa, the latter who played Tao Xu, starred in the dystopian courtroom drama The Trials at The Donmar Warehouse last month.
Yasmin Finney, who plays Elle Argent, will be playing a trans character called Rose in the 60th anniversary Doctor Who series as well as taking the lead role in Mars, a short film that is a frank story of self-discovery based on a song by Yungblud.
Meanwhile, Kit Connor has joined the film adaption of Laura Taylor Namey’s A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow alongside Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin star Maia Reficco and La Reina del Sur‘s Kate del Castillo.
You can order Sebastian Croft’s ‘Queer was always here’ t-shirt here.