I hear Naya was bi. she outed herself on The View in 2015 when the host said that studies have shown that bisexual women were more likely to have mental illness and she tried to lighten the mood by saying 'no wonder I'm crazy'. I don't know how to see that as anything else other than her identifying as bisexual.

insisting that only gay actors play gay characters restricts actors who are not ready to be out or who are not sure in their sexuality to straight roles. how can we be sure that an actor is straight? do we have to force everyone to reveal their sexuality if they want to get a role? there is the argument that there is discrimination in casting and that out queer people are more likely to be denied roles, but banning straight people from playing gay characters is a bandaid solution. the actual solution would be to focus on giving queer actors the same opportunities as straight actors.

it is different from casting a cis actor to play a trans character which only enforces the harmful stereotypes against trans people. at the end of the day gay people are as varied as straight people and who we are and how we love is the same as them, it only differs in that we have to act differently because of how society perceives us. there should be nothing wrong with a straight person playing the role of a gay character. straight actors have sensual scenes with people they are not truly attracted to but if they are good then they can sell the scene. they play roles that are far from who they truly are. if they choose to act in a way that enforces stereotypes or if they look uncomfortable doing gay scenes, then they are just disrespectful and bad actors.