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Winona Ryder Shut Down Her Homophobic Bully Years After Beat Down

Winona Ryder Shut Down Her Homophobic Bully Years After Beat Down

Winona Ryder Shut Down Her Homophobic Bully Years After Beat Down

The inspirational story is going viral once again.

rachelkiley

Winona Ryder’s rise back up to the stardom she deserves since Stranger Things exploded into pop culture has been a gift to all. And now an old anecdote of the time she shot down a homophobic bully is going viral once again.

The story was reshared to Twitter by a fan account, @BESTOFWINONA, and recounts a violent encounter she had as a middle schooler that was publicized in Nigel Goodall’s biography of the Heathers star.

At the start of seventh grade, she says, a group of students called her a f*ggot and jumped her right in the middle of the hallway.

“A group of boys hit me in the stomach and slammed my head hard into a locker,” she said, according to Goodall. “I think they thought I was a gay boy… They were calling me names, calling me a girl, and I was yelling, ‘But, wait, I am a girl.’”

The group beat her badly enough that she wound up with fractured ribs and needed stitches. And even after that, the school allegedly felt that Ryder was a “distraction,” and asked her to leave.

“I’m sorry that gay bashing was such a distraction for them,” she said.

The frequently viral story originates more directly from a 2000 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, which was dug up by NY Mag after Ryder’s experience first started making a splash on social media in 2017. And hearing how at least one of the bullies finally got her comeuppance, in Winona’s own words, is absolutely delicious.

“Years later, I went to a coffee shop in Petaluma, and I ran into one of the girls who’d kicked me, and she said, ‘Winona, Winona, can I have your autograph?’” she recalls. “And I said, ‘Do you remember me? I went to Kenilworth. Remember how, in seventh grade, you beat up that kid?’ and she said, ‘Kind of,’ and I said, ‘That was me. Go f—k yourself!’”

Unfortunately, that’s not the only time Ryder has spoken out about being bullied growing up, but while it’s not a happy story, it’s nice to see an icon get the last word against homophobic jerks.

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Rachel Kiley

Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.

Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.