“There’s more disappointment that’s surfaced since the full story and timeline has surfaced,” said Christian Nunes, who is a board member of the National Organization for Women. “It’s disheartening to think that this would take place in order to get publicity for his career when there are so many victims who are seeking justice and are disregarded or not given justice because of the fact that they are people of color and from the gay community.”

“We are dealing with so many issues from people of color to black girls to black men to black women to the LGBTQIA community to women in general who are not being believed for their victimization,” said Nunes, who believes Smollett “sensationalized the injustice” felt by these communities and helped confirm for others why the police should be hard on victims.

“This is devastating that someone would do this, that someone would go through these lengths to pretend that they were a survivor of hate violence,” Beverly Tillery, Executive Director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project told Yahoo News. “And at the same time, it doesn’t take away what we’ve been saying all along is that you know these incidents like these are real and are devastating to the survivors.”