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MTV is stirring up controversy with their latest high school dramedy series, Faking It.

The show centers around Amy and Karma, two unpopular girls who are “outed” as a couple by a gay classmate. The problem? Neither Amy nor Karma are actually lesbians. After the news of their relationship hits the schoolyard, the former nobodies are on everyone’s radar – forcing them to choose between being truthful or being popular.

Initially the show’s concept was troubling for viewers and potential cast members, who feared the show would glorify “faking it,” but it seems everyone’s warming up to the idea slowly but surely.

Carter Covington, who was approached for a role on the show, told BuzzFeed that, at first, he was offended by the show’s premise. It wasn’t until he himself encountered a similar experience that he realized the idea was actually something that may be familiar to high school students in this day and age.

“As a gay man, I told the network I was offended by that idea,” he told BuzzFeed.

Then, while working with The Trevor Project’s crisis hotline, Covington saw a different issue facing gay youth that changed his mind completely.

“I had a caller one night who said, ‘I’m worried that my friends are only my friends because I’m gay,'” he said. “I was shocked. That idea seemed so foreign to me given the world I grew up in, but this kid explained that he went to a very tolerant high school where being gay was like a badge of honor. That’s when I realized there are schools out there where being gay is no longer a problem, and tolerance is viewed as an asset. It made me think Faking It could work if we set it in a high school like that and had one of the girls actually have a crush on her best friend.”

“I think we’ve handled the subject matter in a way that gives the show way more resonance.”

Carter is now proud to be a part of this project and hopes it will send a message to viewers everywhere that times have changed.

“I feel privileged to be that one that gets to put this on television,” he said. “I’ve come to realize just how much the world has changed, and if this show can be a little moment in the evolution of acceptance and tolerance in this country, I will die the happiest person on earth.”

Check out the first official trailer for the series above and let us know what you think!

Faking It airs April 22 on MTV.

SOURCE: BuzzFeed | VIDEO CREDIT: MTV, BuzzFeed