Exclusive: ‘A Different World’ Star Jordan Aaron Hall Talks Midterms and LGBTQ+ Representation

With the 2026 midterms approaching, “A Different World” star Jordan Aaron Hall and Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson visited North Carolina A&T for the “HBCU Out Loud” initiative to stress the importance of civic engagement and the fight for racial justice and LGBTQ+ acceptance. The two sat down exclusively with The Root to discuss why Black queer inclusion matters heading into the election, the importance of making students feel seen, and why young people need to understand the impact of their vote.

Hall—who plays Amir, the show’s first openly queer Black character—explained the importance of connecting with students and leaving them invigorated and empowered to do their civic duty.

“Getting to come down here to North Carolina A&T with HRC was a beautiful thing. My goal is that the students leave here invigorated. They leave here inspired, and that they feel emboldened to go to the polls and to vote, Hall told The Root. “Not only in this election, but in every election coming forward because it is important right now. We really don’t have room to make any more mistakes, I don’t think, in terms of voting. And so I want everybody to be educated and to continue to show up for these elections because they’re important.”

Hall also expressed how timely it was for “A Different World” to include a character like Amir in their storytelling, noting how people like him exist all over the world and that Black LGBTQ+ representation deserves to be considered and shown on TV.

Related: Why the ‘A Different World’ Reboot Gets Black Queer Representation Right

“We need to be able to have these kinds of conversations about people that exist in our communities. There are so many Amirs walking around out here in this world. And they deserve to be seen and represented,” Hall shared. “I feel blessed to be able to play him and to be able to bring him to life because he is such a needed person in today’s television landscape. And I’m grateful that ‘A Different World’ has done that for the Black community, but also for the LGBTQ community.”

Robinson added that the push for LGBTQ+ liberation and the fight for racial justice are one. She said she could feel the “defiance in the air” from NCAT students who were pissed off by the current political and socioeconomic landscape of their country, noting that defiance drove them to march down to the polls together after discovering there were no on-campus early voting sites. She said many students are already worried about their futures, from finding jobs to having a fair shot at the American dream, and stressed that the midterms will help shape their rights, opportunities, and futures.

“For any student that’s really thinking about their future, we got to have a country that supports you having civil rights. We gotta have a country that doesn’t shoot down diversity, equity, and inclusion and pretend that they’re not targeting our communities. We gotta have a country that doesn’t target Black women like we see happening with this federal government,” Robinson said.

But for that to happen, folks have to do their civic duty, use their voice, and go out and vote. That’s why both Robinson and Hall are dedicated to using their platforms to push for students and others to exercise their right to vote.

“We have to show up, and we have to be educated,” Hall said. “And we have to know that our vote is our voice…Voting is your voice. You have to vote in order to be able to see the changes that you want to see. Our ancestors before us did that, and we have to continue to do that as well. It is important, and it is especially important if we want to see the kinds of changes that we know need to be made in this country.”