Credit: Plus Magazine

Jussie Smollett is getting real about his responsibility to Black gay artists in a new cover story for Plus magazine.

The Empire star was interviewed by openly gay comedian Sampson McCormick for the January/February issue of the magazine, and he came clean about his experiences with homophobia as well as the quest to finding a cure for HIV.

“I think that these are desperate times, desperate, desperate, desperate people,” he said in the interview. “I’m not saying that every single Donald Trump supporter is a desperate person. No, actually I am. I am, but [he is] playing to people’s fears, fears of being less powerful.”

His thoughts on homophobia:

“[Homophobia] is the brainwashing of society,” he explained. “It’s the poisoning of hate. That’s what it is. One of my biggest mentors, Phill Wilson, after the Charleston shootings, I was so low, and it was right when I was being honored at the Heroes in the Struggle last year. And I was so down, I could not stop. It was one of the first times that I felt just completely defeated. [Phill] said to me and Jeremy, he said it like this: ‘These are extremely, extremely desperate people. They are such desperate people, because hate is so desperate right now, because hate is going to lose.’ When hate is gonna lose, hate starts getting real low, hate starts getting real, trying everything. Well, I’m gonna shoot you; well I’m gonna do this. That’s what hate does. That’s what Donald Trump does.”

Read the full interview at Plus. 

The issue hits stands in early December, and released digitally November 18.