How Netflix’s Cheer made Jerry Harris and LaDarius Marshall into LGBTQ+ icons

The team’s accomplishments – it has won 14 National Cheerleading Championships and five Grand National Championships since 2000 – are what initially captured viewers’ attention, but the focus on two LGBTQ+ black kids, among a cast of six main subjects, showed the diversity and inclusion within the sport. Although cheerleading was historically known as an all-American sport with mostly white, female faces, Cheer has rapidly changed the narrative and opened up the idea that athletes come in all shapes, sizes, colours, genders and sexualities.

But it was the friendship between the two breakout stars, Jeremiah Harris, known to fans as Jerry, and La’Darius Marshall, his best friend, that exposed what it is truly like to be both queer and black in their community. The stories of both boys highlighted the obstacles they had to face when coming out to peers and family.

Magnetic and positive, Jerry is a vibrant force you simply cannot help loving. His “mat talk” – inspirational cheers he yells from the sidelines to his fellow cheerleaders – not only encourages his teammates but also his fans. When television chat show host Ellen DeGeneres asked Jerry to report on the Oscars for her show, the stars were just as excited to see him as he was to see them. Laura Dern, who won best supporting actress for her role in Marriage Story, mimicked his famous style and said: “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry! This is what I want to say to you: ‘You’ve got this! You can do this, Jerry!’” She said her daughter also gave her a “mat talk” before the Oscars.

Jerry’s unfailingly effusive personality and adorable mannerisms are both infectious and incredible. He lost his mother to cancer and often was put on the sidelines instead of on the mat, the coveted spot for cheerleaders. Rather than be upset or angry about the placement, he used his role to encourage other team members, which is how he perfected the art of “mat talk”.

La’Darius Marshall is a much more outspoken and emotional player, but his flamboyant style and quirky sense of humour made him attractive to fans. He had already been somewhat of an internet sensation when a 2018 video of him cheering went viral, but Cheer is when viewers really took notice.

Marshall grew up in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, where he was bullied and beaten up by his brothers for being gay and sexually abused by an older boy. His frank account of his difficult upbringing (his mother was sent to prison) and the story of how he was gay but wasn’t allowed to be open warmed the hearts of fans. When he appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, he said his mother apologised after seeing the Netflix series for realising how hard she and the other family members had been on him.

“In the black community, the men try so hard to toughen up their sons, but it makes [them] shut off, and make like we don't have emotions,” Marshall has said about his sexual abuse. “It's really hard growing up as a male, listening to, ‘Oh, you need to be more manly.’ I'm like, ‘What is more manly? Not having emotions? Not talking to people? Not telling people what you think in your mind?’”

The Navarro College coach, Monica Aldama, who has been the head cheerleading coach for 25 years, was the first to surprise audiences with her acceptance of their sexuality. Politically conservative and a religious Christian, she refuted the idea that not accepting kids for being gay was in line with Christian values, and said she would fight for “her kids” no matter what.