When he speaks about this and other passion projects, Murphy cites his disempowering experience of being the only gay person in the room on his first show, Fox's 1999 cult hit "Popular," as his inspiration. "I sort of grew up with just feeling like, 'I kind of want to be here, but you don't want me to be here,'" he said in a 2016 AFI interview, "and it was a feeling that I was very conscious of. The fight to be you."