Will Ferrell and Harper Steele ‘s visit to the Lone Star State was not met with southern hospitality.
While discussing their Netflix documentary Will & Harper , the longtime friends recounted an “intense” moment of transphobic microaggression at Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, which didn’t make it into the final cut.
“We gave a little toast, and I said something about passing a trans bill,” Steele told The New York Times . “And the room did a kind of reversal and a little bit of a boo and a woman shouted out, ‘We still love you.’ I hate the phrase. I could be misinterpreting this woman completely, but this is the feeling I had in the room: The ‘still’ is conditional. You still love me when I finally give up being trans and give my life over to Christ. They still love me even though I’m some kind of sinner or something. I felt that.”
Steele explained, “The room started to feel very wrong to me. I was feeling a little like my transness was on display, I guess, and suddenly that sort of made me feel not great.”