‘He can’t away with it’ says gay 19-year-old whose TikTok live was hijacked by homophobe

The man is under investigation and has lost his job after saying being gay is a ‘deformity’


Content warning: Explicit discussions of homophobia.

“Being gay is the worst disease of all diseases – it’s worse than cancer.” This is just one example of the homophobic abuse 19-year-old Ryan Bennett faced on a TikTok live earlier this week.

On Tuesday at around 1am, TikTok user @77chapo requested to join Ryan’s live video and then continued to throw homophobic insults at him whilst some of Ryan’s followers watched. Chapo then continued to quiz Ryan on whether he believes he was born gay and if he was “born deformed”.

Chapo said being gay is “the worst disease of all diseases” and it’s “worse than cancer” but “it’s the easiest one to cure.” He then continued to claim Ryan isn’t a male, he’s an “it” and said Ryan still has time before he goes to hell.

Ryan shared a screen recording of his live with Chapo and posted it across his social media platforms. His tweet has more than 5,400 likes and Ryan says he’s been receiving a lot of support for the abuse 77chappo aimed at him.

After the live video ended, Ryan told The Tab he came off TikTok and was fully shaking due to how unexpected the whole thing was. He told The Tab: “When the guy was first saying all that stuff, I thought he was joking because it was so ridiculous. But when he carried on saying it I had to try and keep my cool and not stoop to his level.”

Ryan decided to post the video after one of his followers sent him the screen recording. He says when he watched it back, it was much worse than he remembered. He also says he thought about the rise in homophobic attacks in Liverpool and across the UK last year. Ryan says “the attention and awareness brought in by the victims sharing their stories after the homophobic attacks was so important. I thought sharing this video to be seen by as many people as possible was important.”

Ryan Bennett

He says the last thing he wanted was for Chapo to get away with his hateful behaviour. Since posting the video, Ryan has confirmed Chapo lost his job working for a security firm in London. Allegedly the firm messaged Ryan yesterday claiming it’s holding an “internal investigation” into Chapo.

Chapo also had his TikTok account removed but he has since made a new one. Ryan says it’s a shame to see he’s shown no signs of remorse and he’s now back posting like normal. Ryan says: “I don’t think people are aware homophobia is still a thing. They genuinely think everything is fine and this TikTok live is a prime example that homophobia still exists.”

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