Gay Activists Demand an Apology from Actor Washington
HOLLYWOOD – Isaiah Washington angered the gay and lesbian community last week by using the term “faggot” at the Golden Globe awards, and now the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is demanding an apology. Isaiah Washington is a prominent star on the hit television show, Grey’s Anatomy. According to Washington, he himself is not a faggot.
Fellow cast-mates were shocked when Washington grabbed the microphone in the press room and insisted he never used the word “faggot” to describe gay cast-mate T.R. Knight.
Mr. Knight has commented that Washington had used the term on the set, and that he was surprised he would use it again.In a move that seems to borrow a page out of African-American activist Jesse Jackson’s or Al Sharpton’s “play book”, GLAAD is now targeting Washington and has demanded an apology, and has requested talks with the star, to raise awareness of the issue. GLAAD has also sought camera time and interviews with news agencies nationwide.
Dr. Fitzpatrick of the National Institute on People, Places and Locations, Etc… (“NIPPLE”) said, “You know, Eddie Murphy once quipped in his stand-up performances, ‘Hey man, don’t mess with faggots. Faggots will kick yo ass’. When Eddie made those comments, he was protected from any backlash since he was a member of the African American community. As such, Eddie could make fun of anyone, at any time.”
Dr. Fitzpatrick went on to say, “Many African Americans have made a lucrative career out of bashing members of various other ethnic, religious and racial groups. Who can forget Richard Pryor’s imitation of ‘honkeys’ walking, talking and just being too ‘white’, or Chris Rock’s ability to make the only white person in the audience feel uncomfortable”.
All that has changed though, say some analysts, as gay Americans have seemingly laid claim to all of the rights and privileges that go along with being a member of the top spot in America’s burgeoning minority class. Until recently, the top spot was African American, followed by Mentally-handicapped American, and then gay American.
With the recent and surprising supplanting of African American's top spot by gay Americans, some wonder what will become of the handicapped and mentally ill Americans.
The furor over the comments made by Washington continues to stir up emotions, whether it is in Hollywood or locally.
Following the Golden Globes awards many area neighborhoods reported handfuls of concerned gays who had spilled out onto the streets, many beginning impromptu rallies to demonstrate their solidarity. One demonstrator found a megaphone on his partner’s body and began a chant: “We’re here! We’re Queer! We take it in the re…”
HOLLYWOOD – Isaiah Washington angered the gay and lesbian community last week by using the term “faggot” at the Golden Globe awards, and now the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is demanding an apology. Isaiah Washington is a prominent star on the hit television show, Grey’s Anatomy. According to Washington, he himself is not a faggot.
Fellow cast-mates were shocked when Washington grabbed the microphone in the press room and insisted he never used the word “faggot” to describe gay cast-mate T.R. Knight.
Mr. Knight has commented that Washington had used the term on the set, and that he was surprised he would use it again.In a move that seems to borrow a page out of African-American activist Jesse Jackson’s or Al Sharpton’s “play book”, GLAAD is now targeting Washington and has demanded an apology, and has requested talks with the star, to raise awareness of the issue. GLAAD has also sought camera time and interviews with news agencies nationwide.
Dr. Fitzpatrick of the National Institute on People, Places and Locations, Etc… (“NIPPLE”) said, “You know, Eddie Murphy once quipped in his stand-up performances, ‘Hey man, don’t mess with faggots. Faggots will kick yo ass’. When Eddie made those comments, he was protected from any backlash since he was a member of the African American community. As such, Eddie could make fun of anyone, at any time.”
Dr. Fitzpatrick went on to say, “Many African Americans have made a lucrative career out of bashing members of various other ethnic, religious and racial groups. Who can forget Richard Pryor’s imitation of ‘honkeys’ walking, talking and just being too ‘white’, or Chris Rock’s ability to make the only white person in the audience feel uncomfortable”.
All that has changed though, say some analysts, as gay Americans have seemingly laid claim to all of the rights and privileges that go along with being a member of the top spot in America’s burgeoning minority class. Until recently, the top spot was African American, followed by Mentally-handicapped American, and then gay American.
With the recent and surprising supplanting of African American's top spot by gay Americans, some wonder what will become of the handicapped and mentally ill Americans.
The furor over the comments made by Washington continues to stir up emotions, whether it is in Hollywood or locally.
Following the Golden Globes awards many area neighborhoods reported handfuls of concerned gays who had spilled out onto the streets, many beginning impromptu rallies to demonstrate their solidarity. One demonstrator found a megaphone on his partner’s body and began a chant: “We’re here! We’re Queer! We take it in the re…”
When reached for comment GLAAD President Neil Giuliano said, "Oh, Jethuth Chrith”.
by File Boy
posted by File Boy & D.Tkon at 10:50 AM
9 Comments:
Funny! I’m always intrigued by media coverage of one minority name-calling another minority. HEADLINE! Pot calls Kettle Black! You have to laugh! Also, your article got me thinking (as they all do) about where someone would fit who was black, mentally handicapped and gay? Which group would he belong to and would it be wrong of him to call himself names? Would he have to answer on his own behalf to Jesse Jackson? Would he sue?
And then of course, this is the part of my response that always has nothing to do with what you wrote and gets you to focus on me. Your article reminded me of an interesting event I experienced in college. We had a frat brother in our Delta Tau Delta chapter who was the closest thing to a Nazi that I ever saw with my own eyes. He was a true fascist and owned a copy of everything Hitler ever said. Anyway, in my senior year, during Black History Month, he gathered up all of our pledges and had them post signs all over campus touting a party that our frat was supposedly sponsoring. The flyers depicted four white choirboys singing while a white fascist held onto chains that were wrapped around a cowering naked Negro. The fascist had his work boot planted firmly on the side of the Negro’s head as he cowered submissively. The flyer said, “Come celebrate White History Week with Delta Tau Delta!”
You’ve never seen shit hit a fan like it did back then. We made every local paper, the Washington Post, the local news and the FUCKING WORLD NEWS! I personally took three phone calls from the Associated Press, ABC and NBC News. I totally tarred my undies! It was a goddamn media circus. And of course, every black caucus and civil rights group was screaming for our heads. The Rainbow Coalition demanded that we issue a written apology, cancel the party and march for unity in the streets of Washington DC with our black brothers and sisters.
What did we do? We “officially” cancelled the party and promised to march in the streets with our brothers and sisters on some future date to be arranged. We threw the party in secret and made our only black frat brother serve beer naked, behind the bar while wearing a dog collar and a leash. We never marched. And I remember that the whole thing scared the shit out me and made me worry that I’d never be admitted to practice in any jurisdiction because of that. Thanks for the memories!
One thing I've noticed is that you don't often see a mentally handicapped person who is also gay. Now why is that? There are gay whites, gay blacks and gay everything elses, but I don't think I've seen any gay mentally handicapped people. It could be that mentally handicapped people (at least the one's who are severely so) are mentally like children, and it is illegal to have sex with them (as Dtkon also found out during his college years, but that's another story - just kidding, calm down)so we don't know when they are gay or straight, because they don't have sex anyway. This reminds me that I heard a crazy piece of audio from the 60s called something like, "Sex and your Mentally Retarded Child", it was really creepy, and aimed at teaching parents how to teach their retarded children to avoid sexual predators, etc.. It was like, "Marylin was special, and all the men in the neighborhood knew it. But her recent development of breasts and a curvacious body had attracted the attention of Melvin from across the street. Let's listen in as Melvin asks Marylin if she'd like to go for a ride in his car..." -creepy.
As far as your college experience with the Nazi - I wonder, if the fliers that were posted by the pledges didn't have a picture of a black person underfoot of the jack-booted thugs, and simply stated, "Come join us for White History Month celebration" would there have been such an uproar? Is it ok to celebrate one's heritage, if one is not a minority?
I bring this up (and this may have to be another post) because I have a theory that we touched on before, but here it is again. If you take any news headline or radio/tv soundbite and replace the word "Black" with "White" a socially acceptable and responsible topic suddenly becomes a piece on racism. Do you doubt what I'm saying? Check it out: "Today hundreds of Black Americans stormed the streets to protest the state practice of hiring too many whites" - this is something that wouldn't surprise anyone, and may even seem like a good thing, right? Now, try this headline: "Today hundreds of White Americans stormed the streets to protest the state practice of hiring too many blacks" - this headline kind of makes you uncomfortable and gives you the creeps, right? See? I would like to develop a race card translator - similar to the babel fish or the dialectizer but this would convert the word "black" to "white" in any news piece or quotes from various famous people. Then we could feed these stories into the race card translator and see if we find them racist or not.
Ahhh FB - Your brilliance is always right there - a veritable cornucopia (SHIT There goes the plastic bag lady!!) Um where was I? Oh yeah. I so totally agree with the black converted to white thing. From instant good to instant evil. But I can’t go to far with this subject, as you know, because there’s a magnet permanently affixed to my moral compass, which produces interesting results and much fodder for this project we’ve undertaken. There’s so much I’d love to say that must remain hidden in the pink folds of my cortex.
For instance, (I had to delete what I wrote here – better it should remain a sick thought stuck in my head than be posted for the world to see – even D.Tkon has limits). Let’s just say it had to do with Marilyn and Melvin ok? Nuff said. As for you incredibly thought provoking question about why we never see gay black handicapped people, I had to give that one some thought. Likewise, my original answer had to be deleted from this posting as well. I tried to only take out the offensive parts, but after I did, all that remained was punctuation. I guess I’ll have to just stick to talking about dounts.
Another way the race card translator could work would be to have a button called: "Convert to Donut". You could take any crazy Nazi or fascist statement or quote and anytime a racial describer or epithet was used, it would insert the word "donut".
For example, "Donut Power" would become the battle cry for the KKK. Much better than the crap they like to yell now.
So like I could respond to your question about why there are no gay handicapped black persons by saying the following:
Hey, FB, the reason there are no gay handicapped donuts is because to say "handicapped" and "donut" in the same sentence is redundant. You mean like that?
No more like this, "They say that the reason there are no bagel croissant donuts, is because..."
Anyway, the entire premise is wrong because there must be bagel donuts who are mentally retarded people, since being a bagel is genetic (see post on Man Storms out of Room)
Here's a question from the depths of my insanity -
If you saw a bunch of gay people (bagels, whatever) and they had megaphones and were marching in town yelling "Gay Power" would you be scared, offended or would you think it was a good thing? Now replace "gay" with "white" - how would you feel? That's what my translator will tackle - the big issues we face each day.
This is great info to know.
Yo d.tkon,
The crap that Nick and Chris pulled at the Delta house was pure stupid crap and represented none of us. Your description of the actual flyer and the black pledge behind the bar was a bit off I am afraid thought this takes only a little of the Fox News out of the story! First, we didn't have a black frat brother (I have all the pics still!) and we ended up with a closed party with the Black Student Union if you recall like it was a regular "Pub Nite". What you did leave out - which is rich - is that the whole time the Secret Service, the FBI, Campus and DC police and people out of nowhere with riot gear on showed up, "Fuck Tha Police" by N.W.A. pumped out of speakers on the fourth floor.
Just four blocks from the White House, while standing in stupid awe, we would learn the biggest lesson we could in college. It was only a few years later the LA Riots started with N.W.A. as the soundtrack.
Interesting to see Dr. DRE standing toe to toe as a billionaire "Straight Out of Compton" and next to Tim Cook from Apple after all these years and nothing has really changed.
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