Yahoo News Original Blue Power Ranger David Yost on gay representation in Netflix's Power Rangers reunion special
Power Rangers star David Yost has been open about how the homophobia he faced while working on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers led him to walk away from the hit series in the 1990s. But now, as he returns for the 30th anniversary special Once & Always, he's seeing the LGBTQ community explicitly represented on the series.
"I think it's great that we add an element like that obviously into where we are, because it's so important that people do see representation," Yost tells EW of a Once & Always scene in which Yellow Ranger Trini's daughter Minh (Charlie Kersh) helps a man and his boyfriend fend off some of Rita Repulsa's Putty Patrollers. "It's taken a long time to get there. So to have it in this special I think is great, and to just have it be like it's just an everyday thing, I think is awesome."
While joining the original cast in a conversation with EW for the 25th anniversary of the series, Yost spoke in depth about leaving Power Rangers in 1996 and entering conversion therapy (a practice that is opposed by the American Psychiatric Association and criticized for it's detrimental impact on patients).
Hasbro/eOne Steve Cardenas, David Yost, and Catherine Sutherland in 'Power Rangers: Once & Always'
"Being an actor that was on one of the most successful children's show at the time, at times I would be embarrassed because I didn't want people to know what I was going through and what I had gone through. In the beginning, I certainly didn't want people to know that I was gay," he said. ""I put myself through conversion therapy because I didn't wanna be gay. And I really struggled and struggled and struggled with it. And unfortunately I had a nervous breakdown and I checked into a hospital for five weeks and sorta had to start the process of learning to accept myself, which was very difficult; it took me many years after the fact."
Yost now says he was glad to see Power Rangers' first moment of LGBTQ representation in a 2021 episode of Power Rangers Dino Fury, which found Green Ranger Izzy (Tessa Rao) holding hands with Fern (Jacqueline Joe). But the franchise, he adds, has always worked to emphasize diversity.
"In so many ways, we were ahead of our time in 1993 because of the cast that we had," he says. "Our characters all were so diverse, but we really showed what teamwork was about — and that we could all come together and we could be from different backgrounds and we could be friends."
Amy Jo Johnson, Thuy Trang, Austin St. John, Walter Emanuel Jones, and David Yost on 'Mighty Morphin Power Rangers'
"Yeah, I mean at that time, I was actually the first Black superhero on live action TV," adds Walter Emmanuel Jones, who played Black Ranger Zack. "So I know that with the show being in 40 countries around the world, it was a motivating factor for anybody that was my color or a color like mine. It'd be like, 'I can be that. I can do that. I can be just like him.' The confidence that it gave people, I think, was amazing."
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always is streaming now on Netflix.
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