Will teenaged Justin on “Ugly Betty” come out?

Don’t you wish there was a kid like Justin Suarez on TV in the 70s or 80s?

I sure do. This character on Ugly Betty, portrayed by Mark Indelicato, is clearly gay and has been since day one of the show. What’s been wonderful is that his Latino family has celebrated who he is, encouraged his interest in fashion and in performing on stage. Even his late father, who tried to make him toss around the football with him at one point, came around and saw what a beautiful soul his son has.

The Advocate has posted a new interview with Ugly Betty creator Silvio Horta talks about Justin’s journey and a host of other things related to this wonderful show which, thankfully, is being moved from its current dead-end Friday time slot to Wednesday nights.

I recently re-watched the pilot and was again struck by how breakthrough the character of Justin was in terms of being a young, unapologetically femme character. Can you talk a little bit about casting Mark Indelicato and how you direct a young actor to play gay?
Well, Justin was written as an effeminate eleven or twelve year old – I think that’s what the stage direction said – and Mark came in and did such a good job at the audition. He just nailed it. He took it beyond being just a punch line – he made it a real character and a real performance. That was one of the great early surprises on the show. He was so young coming in so you really don’t know what he’s going to be capable of over the course of the series. He’s been terrific.

This season, Justin is sadly the target of bullies at his less-than-queen-friendly Queens high school. Were you a bullied at school for being gay?
I wasn’t a target of that kind of bullying, no. Nothing that bad.

Michael Urie’s character Marc St. James advises Justin to be in on the bully’s joke. Did you ever get that kind of advice?
That wasn’t specific advice that I got but I know that concept came from the writers’ room.

Were you lucky enough to have a Marc-like mentor in your early life?
No.Can you talk to me about the creative decision to have Justin announce “I’m not gay” in the recent episode “Backseat Betty?”

We want to tell a story of Justin coming to terms with his identity over the course of this whole year and I think when he says that, it’s really the beginning of telling the story, as opposed to the end. It gives us a place to go to. He’s gonna be struggling with his identity and that’s part of it that’s very realistic and relatable. Not really knowing who you are or what you are.