The 'Queer Eye' star will make his ballroom debut during the season 28 premiere, airing Sept. 16 on ABC.
Karamo Brown is moving forward with nothing but good vibes.
The Queer Eye star took to Instagram on Thursday, sharing his first post on the social media platform since Aug. 22, after he received backlash for choosing to compete on the upcoming season of Dancing With the Stars alongside controversial former White House press secretary Sean Spicer.
"So... some of you may know I deleted my other social media pages and took a long break from posting on ig because I been in a bad state of mind," Brown explained. "My kids/family & I were being threatened by strangers... People who I thought supported & loved me turned their backs on me... saying I was a traitor, a horrible person, delusional and treating me really bad."
"But as I walk into my first dance rehearsal for @dancingabc No More Tears and No More Holding My Head Low!" he continued. "I'm playing my favorite/pick me up song from @marenmorris ... taking a deep breath and reminding myself #EverythingsGonnaBeOkay ❤️? #ImBack."
Last month, following Dancing With the Stars' season 28 cast announcement, Brown received plenty of cruel comments about his decision to do the show after replying to a fan who expressed their disappointment via Twitter.
"I'm actually disappointed in @Karamo for lending his celebrity to this," a Twitter user wrote alongside another Rolling Stone tweet that said, "#DWTS will assist in the public rehabilitation of former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer."
Brown defended himself, tweeting, "First, I have no say who is on the cast and didn't find out till this morning that he is on! But I'll tell you this... I'm excited to sit down w/ him and engage in respectful conversations. Only way things get better is if we try to educate those who have different POV than us."
In another tweet, Brown expressed how he "can't stand people" who post things "just to flame the fire and get a reaction."
"We fight harder than your a** ever has for people of color and members of the LGBTQIA community," he added after someone else called him out.
Brown has since deleted his Twitter account and has yet to reactivate it.
Spicer's involvement with the show has already received plenty of criticism from fans, who created a #BoycottDWTS hashtag and a petition in an attempt to get ABC to reconsider his casting. Even host Tom Bergeron spoke out, writing, "A few months ago, during a lunch with DWTS' new executive producer, I offered suggestions for season 28. Chief among them was my hope that DWTS, in its return from an unprecedented year-long hiatus, would be a joyful respite from our exhausting political climate and free of inevitably divisive bookings from any party affiliation."
"I left that lunch convinced we were in agreement. Subsequently (and rather obviously), a decision was made to, as we often say in Hollywood, 'go a different direction,'" he continued. "It is the prerogative of the producers, in partnership with the network, to make whatever decisions they feel are in the best long term interests of the franchise. We can agree to disagree, as we do now, but ultimately it's their call. I'll leave to them to answer any further questions about those decisions."
Read Bergeron's full statement here, and watch the video below for more on Brown.
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