The call came two days before the new Netflix series Boots started production. Miles Heizer had landed the lead role of Cameron Cope, a closeted gay teen who in 1990 impulsively joins the Marines and heads to boot camp. The actor had two days to get to New Orleans for the production. As number 1 on the call sheet, Heizer couldn’t be late to start this journey with a group of other young men in what would become two years of physically challenging boot camp training, sweltering summers, and camaraderie. But first he had to figure out how to get to Louisiana with his two dogs.
Since he couldn’t fly solo with both pups as flight rules allow only one dog per person, the Boots team paired Heizer with someone he’d come to know well. Screenwriter, author, and former Marine Sgt. Greg Cope White met Heizer at Los Angeles International Airport to help chaperone his dogs to this new adventure in the Deep South.
The 31-year-old gay actor and former star of Parenthood and 13 Reasons Why had only ever interacted with the show’s producers and staff via Zoom, and meeting Cope White felt daunting. After all, Cope White wasn’t just another part of the show’s team; his memoir, The Pink Marine, is the inspiration behind Boots, and his life in the military shaped the character Cameron, whom Heizer plays. He also was a writer and producer for the show.
Miles Heizer plays a closeted Marine cadet in Netflix's 'Boots.'Netflix
“I was so nervous. I’ve never played a real person,” Heizer says. “There’s the fear that they’re going to see you and not connect with you. … Greg told me up front, ‘I want this to be Cameron’s story, not Greg’s story.’”
The final series produced by the late Norman Lear, Boots tells the tale of Cameron, who knows down deep that he’s gay and attempts to find his potential in the Marines alongside his straight best friend, Ray McAffey (Liam Oh). For Ray, joining the Marines is a chance to prove himself to his strict father; for Cameron, it’s a way to escape a messy home and his narcissistic mother, played flawlessly by Vera Farmiga. The Marine Corps offers him the chance to change — even if that means remaining closeted in the time before “don’t ask, don’t tell.” As recently as 1990, being queer in the military was illegal. Upon entering the base for boot camp, Cameron clocks a sign that reads “no homosexuals.”
The show’s premiere in early October had been a long time coming. Cope White’s book was published in 2015, and he knew he wanted to bring it to the screen. He reached out to someone he’d long admired and knew: legendary producer Lear (The Jeffersons, All in the Family, and One Day at a Time). Just as the pandemic hit in 2020, Boots creator and co-showrunner Andy Parker received the book and came on board. A producer of the Tales of the City reboot (2019), Parker envisioned the show in the vein of Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam War classic, Full Metal Jacket, meets gay humorist David Sedaris.
Max Parker as drill instructor Sgt. Sullivan in 'Boots'Netflix
“I had been a closeted teenager in a very conservative household and had thought very hard about joining the Marines myself,” Parker says. “When I got a hold of Greg’s book, it was like the road not taken. I knew I could connect to all the themes of why, for a closeted kid, going into the Marines would feel like a way to prove yourself.”
Sony greenlit the project three years later, and production began in 2024 after the writers’ strike. While the show is set more than 30 years in the past, the issues of military service, identity, and who is considered “American” have never been more relevant.
“The question we wanted to dramatize was: Who gets to belong? Who gets to be an American?” Parker says. “Norman Lear … built his career on expanding the American story. I see this show as a continuation of that: a plea for empathy, inclusion, and belonging.”
The Marines offered Cope White a change from a challenging adolescence and finding a sense of community he craved.
“I couldn’t keep living my life like I was living: bullied, weak, tired, no self-confidence. No one had ever told me that I was on the right track or that I was doing well,” Cope White says. “I didn’t have those teachers that lifted you up, because I went to 13 schools in 11 years. In 10th grade, I was in three different schools. I didn’t ever have that foundation. Not from my community and not from the world. Instead, they were telling me that I was wrong.”
Andy Parker, Miles Heizer, Angus O’Brien, and Greg Cope White on a panel at the Association of LGBTQ+ JournalistsKaid Lavo/nlgja the association of LGBTq+ journalists
A desire to belong and the secrets people keep and changes they make to fit in are at the core of Boots. Issues of race, class, and gender also permeate the show. Throughout the series, Cameron’s alter ego, a confident gay man, appears to him, challenging his decision to enlist and urging the young Marine to be his authentic self.
“Cameron is discovering he’s capable of things he never would have tried because he was so scared of people knowing this thing [that he’s gay] about him,” Heizer says. “Everyone has something they don’t want people to know because they’re afraid of how they’ll be perceived. At the end of the day, when we connect as people, we form bonds we never expected.”
Heizer adds that he relates to how Cameron is navigating his sexuality because of his coming-out experience when he was 19 and starring in Parenthood.
“I think something that a lot of queer people go through, I certainly did growing up, where it was like I had this secret that no one knew, even my closest friends,” he says. “And of course, once I finally came out to them, they could not have possibly cared less.”
On set, the Boots cast developed deep friendships. “By the end of filming, we had known each other for almost two years,” Heizer says. “I think we ended up having a very similar experience to the characters in the show.”
Liam Oh and Heizer as best friends Ray and Cameron Netflix
That bond brought the stars and creators together for a special panel at the Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists’ annual conference in September, where Heizer, Parker, and Cope White were in attendance along with out actor Angus O’Brien, who plays the comical and disturbing character Hicks. Several cast members drove to Atlanta to support them.
A brotherhood is something Heizer has not previously experienced. “My first male friends were on this show,” he explains. “I only had female friends growing up. I was nervous around boys because I was scared they’d see I was gay. … I realized we all want the same things: to be happy, laugh at stupid videos, and connect.”
“There’s a saying that we say in the Marines,” Cope White says. “‘When we march, it’s 70 boots hitting the ground at one time, but one heartbeat.’ I told that to the boys [in the series]. They got it. They felt it.”
The military of the 1990s was exclusionary and dangerous for queer people. To be exposed as LGBTQ+ could mean expulsion or even court-martial. In Boots, Cameron’s hard-ass drill instructor, Sgt. Sullivan (gay former Emmerdale star Max Parker), is investigated for being gay, and his lover is arrested. The story is as prescient as ever, as the Trump administration has again banned transgender service members.
The cast of 'Boots' at the Association of LGBTQ+ JournalistsKaid Lavo/nlgja the association of lgbtq+ journalists
“We thought we were making a document about history. We didn’t know it would feel so resonant, so relevant,” says Heizer. “To tell someone they can’t serve because of something that has no effect on anyone is completely absurd. To tell someone they can’t potentially sacrifice their life because they’re trans is just evil.”
Those who refuse to let trans people serve are cowards, Cope White asserts.
“I’m not interested in politicians and billionaires in the 1 percent who are too chickenshit to serve to judge those that are willing to risk their lives to defend our Constitution,” he says. “When someone decides to make that ultimate sacrifice and make that commitment, they deserve our respect, our honor, and our belief in their ability to do their job.”
There’s hope that the show can spark conversations about these and other policies affecting LGBTQ+ people, says Parker. “We can show what it does to people, the human consequences, and hope that shared humanity resonates — maybe even changes hearts and minds.”
This cover story is part of The Advocate's Nov/Dec 2025 print issue, which hits newsstands October 28. Support queer media and subscribe — or download the issue through Apple News, Zinio, Nook, or PressReader starting October 16.
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