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Reality TV has often become a hotbed of drama, salacious displays of sex, catfights, and catty one-liners. Emerging from the typical noise of reality TV, E! Entertainment’s Mathis Family Matters is a breath of fresh air. The show details the life of popular TV personality Judge Mathis, his wife, and his four adult children, as everyone congregates in Los Angeles, all together again after pursuing their separate lives. Judge Mathis’ older son, Gregory Mathis Jr, has become a major focus of the show as his personal life turned public in the blink of an eye. His public coming out, his long-term relationship with his partner Elliot, and his involvement with both political and social causes has placed him among this year’s LGBTQ stand-out activist.

A major storyline for the show’s debut season is Greg Jr’s reluctance to make his sexuality a public thing. Though well supported by his family, his experience in politics as well as the neighborhoods he grew up created an atmosphere of wariness. What would his dad’s fans say? What would the nation say? What would his political peers say? Once he publicly came out, there would be no going back. Since the show premiered, it has been nothing but a media frenzy from major network talk shows to podcasts across the nation, to print coverage in all types of mediums. Though he never wanted the spotlight, it gravitated towards him, and it has been a blessing, certain challenges notwithstanding.

What I have enjoyed the most are people who’ve genuinely been touched or inspired by just seeing me live my life, and it surprises me every single time. I get messages in my inbox on Instagram, people who are saying that I helped them in their journey by being public with Elliot on the show and our coming out journey. I was actually just at dinner with a buddy of mine who went to Michigan undergrad with me and he was telling me that his younger brother just came out and he said, “Our entire family started watching the show because we were just trying to figure out how to deal with this and your show has helped us in that way.” And so that’s been the best part, just knowing that it is making an actual difference. The hardest part has been having the spotlight on me because, I mean, look, none of us are perfect. And so, it’s a little scary when you say something or tweet something, you do have all these people looking up to you and looking at what you do as an example. Pressure to not say the wrong thing or not want to let folks down who may be looking to you for some sort of guidance or as a role model, quite frankly.

One of the reasons I did want to do this show is because I know that putting myself out there in that way will help people and save a lot of lives. I mean, representation’s important and I know how valuable it would’ve been to me growing up and on my journey to see someone like me on television, someone that was living their life authentically, someone that was open about their struggles with their sexuality and how difficult it was to get to this point and how I’m still a work in progress.

Mathis’ journey to reality TV comes by way of politics, a career that runs in the family. Mathis Sr, after serving time in jail, became heavily involved as a campus activist at Eastern Michigan University and worked for the Democratic Party, organizing demonstrations against South African Apartheid policies and went from unpaid political intern to serving as the appointed head of Jesse Jackson’s Presidential campaign in Michigan. Mathis Jr. followed suit and served over a decade in political offices, starting off as an intern as well, filling many positions, including staff assistant for Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

It was a product of the way I grew up. I mean, my dad was in politics from an early age, he ran a lot of political campaigns when I was growing up and so I was around it. But also, when I was young, I went to Detroit public schools up until sixth grade, and then we moved out and went to suburban schools. I could remember even at that age; I saw the difference in the school districts. I saw the resources that were so disparate between the suburban well-funded schools and the inner-city schools and it didn’t make sense to me then. I knew what the people who looked like that went to those different school districts as well and so I always kind of had an eye for wanting to figure out how I could help other people. That was my first example. I’m like, wait a minute, what can I do when I stopped going to inner city schools and went to suburban schools to help the kids that are still going to these inner-city schools? And so, I always had a little bit of a passion to just want to help people and that really is the reason I started in politics. It was a passion deep within, I would say.

Though he enjoyed a successful career in politics, his career as a fashionista in politics was short-lived.

I remember I was an intern in Jesse Jackson Jr’s office and on my first day I was so excited. If you all have ever been to DC in the middle of the summer, it is piping hot and that’s when all the interns come to DC. I’m thinking, I’m going to put on this great outfit and look great. It just shows how naive I was at that time. I should have known better, but I put on some nice shoes, and a pair of what I thought were nice khaki shorts with a polo, because they said we didn’t have to wear a suit that day, wear casual. I walk into the office and the first thing they say is, “Why are you wearing shorts in the office?” And my face just dropped, and I was so embarrassed. It ended up being a great intern experience, but that always stands out to me because here I am walking in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on my first day as an intern, and that’s literally the first story I have. They said, “You’re lucky the Chief of Staff’s not here because he would’ve sent you right home, but I’m going to let you stay for the day, but don’t ever wear shorts in the office again.”

All jokes aside, his political work would constitute some of his proudest moments to date.

My favorite moment was when I was on the Senate floor the night that John McCain voted no on repealing the Affordable Care Act. We thought the law was gone for sure and John McCain came in there and, rest his soul, saved the day. We partied like it was 1999 at night. I did a lot of domestic policy issues and healthcare fell in my portfolio when I was working in the United States Senate and that was a really special moment because we fought so hard for that. I worked on President Obama’s reelection campaign in Ohio, which was probably one of my other best moments the night that we won Ohio. That was the last time the Democratic party won Ohio, unfortunately, but that was a special moment.

Would Greg Jr ever run for office himself?

I would never say never no to anything, and I wouldn’t necessarily say I’ve left politics completely. I still take my advocacy very seriously. But I think everything has a season and I’m excited for what is going to be next for me, I’m going to be able to really have an impact in a different way both in my advocacy from the LGBTQ perspective, but also in work with my family on some projects. My dad has a production company and I’m working with him on some projects that I’ll bring a unique perspective to it with my background, both in the LGBTQ space, but also my background in politics.

His family is having an impact. Without table flipping, catfights, or backstabbing, Mathis Family Matters has become a hit. Proving that reality TV can be wholesome and popular at the same time, the nation gets a glimpse of what a successful, Black, American family looks like, with each family member proud of the other for their individual successes. The show came to fruition because of his younger brother, Amir, a television producer.

Amir came to our family with this concept a few years ago, and at first, we were super reluctant to do it. Everybody was like, no, we’re not putting our lives out there like that. But he came with a unique perspective of like, look, we have a super close-knit family, we have a lot of fun together, we love each other, and he ultimately convinced us that we had something to offer the world that was different than what we do see on TV, and he sold us on that quite frankly. My dad eventually said yes because everybody else got on board. Amir went out and sold the show and made it happen all on his own and that is the genuine way in which this came together. It was partially Amir being able to convince us that this was something that would be positive. It really gives us an opportunity to showcase a positive family. I’m not going to say we’re perfect because we’re not. We have our issues that we work through, but that’s healthy for the world to see also … something slightly different to offer than what you see on a lot of reality TV shows.

Showcasing Greg Jr’s coming out story is so important not only for mainstream audiences to see but for other groups such as the Black and religious community. Part of Greg’s reluctance to come out was directly because of the environment he was brought up in, although his sexuality was part of who he is from early on.

I can’t put an exact age on it, but I just remember being young being attracted to a guy and thinking at that age, oh no, this is wrong. I can’t tell anybody about this. I’m not supposed to be doing this. Cause at that point, I would’ve been teased and bullied like crazy if I had ever expressed those feelings at that age. I talk about this on the show a little bit, but I actually went to the church at the time and the pastor would speak frequently about how people who were homosexual were against what the Bible taught and that we were going to hell and it was an abomination and I actually would go home after church frequently and would try and pray not to be gay.

I can’t paint a broad brush for how our entire community feels, but I can speak from personal experience, which is that to me, the way I was raised, the Black church was very important to me. It was the anchor of our family, and many of our community. Being raised in the south, it was even amplified – once you leave high school, you’re expected to be bringing home a wife and have a family. In my experience, it’s been that mixture of Black families wanting their relatives to have a family, to have a strong Black family, and then the fact that we are so rooted in the church, which I continue to be. I go to church every Sunday. I’m very strong in my faith, but I just have a different interpretation than I think a lot of other people might.

Looking towards the future, now with reality TV star added to his resume, he is eager to show the world what else makes up Gregory Mathis Jr.

Now that (the coming out) is done, I’m excited to just get to living my life and not having to revisit that constantly. It’s like, okay, I’ve come out of the closet. You know who I am now. In future seasons of Mathis Family Matters, I’m excited for the world to see that yeah, I’m gay, but there’s so much more to me than that. I am really looking forward to people getting to see those different layers and getting to know me in a different way, rather than just the gay son of Judge Greg Mathis.

You can stream the full season of Mathis Family Matters on E!

Follow Greg Jr on IG: @GregMathisJr

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