Ryan Murphy Defends Neflix Putting 'Dahmer' Under LGBTQ Tag

On the heels of the controversial miniseries receiving four Golden Globes nominations, the director spoke to Varietyabout the backlash surrounding the streamer's decision to initially list the show under the LGBTQ tag when it premiered this past September.

"It's about homophobia," Murphy said of his fictionalized retelling of the serial killer's crimes, which included the rape, murder and mutilation of 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991.

"I have a saying, 'My job as an artist is to hold up a mirror about what happened,'" the Glee creator continued. "It's ugly. It's not pretty. Do you want to look at it? If you do, watch it."

He added, "If you don't, look away, and sometimes, some of this outrage is directed at the frame of the mirror instead of the reflection."

Murphy then went on to say that while he understood the queer community's outrage, he also "disagrees with it personally" before theorizing that Dahmer may have been categorized under the LGBTQ tag "because of my involvement."

"I'm a gay man, so most of my stories deal with some sort of LGBTQ thing and I do that selfishly," he explained. "When I was growing up, I had nothing [to look to]. My mission statement has been to talk about those stories and those characters and unearth buried history."

Since its debut, DAHMER has drummed up plenty of controversy, with one of the first critiques being its categorization, causing the streamer to remove it from its LGBTQ section two days later. Not only that, but the series has also been accused of glamorizing Dahmer's horrendous crimes by both the general public and the relatives of his victims.

Netflix has yet to weigh in on Murphy's comments. In the meantime though, you can read his entire Variety interview here.

Photo via Getty / Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic