The US lurches from one social media and TV crisis every hour, it seems. The most recent involves a very wealthy white lesbian TV host who is encouraging a comic with an extreme anti-gay past (said he would beat a little boy senseless if he said he was gay, and degraded men he didnt like by calling them f@gs during his act and online as recently as three years ago, for example) to host a mostly gay watched and staged award show with mostly gay people being awarded for their work. She claims he should get a second chance even though his homophobic jokes were frequent and he supposedly apologized. His non-apologies have been that he is sorry people are so sensitive to jokes about gay bashing, he doesn't make homophobic jokes now because people are sensitive about them and it cost him bookings, that he is a victim of a conspiracy by haters and trolls, and there is no reason to apologize again because he wants to move on. His friend Ellen, a lesbian, came to his rescue this week by dismissing gay and trans concerns and by calling out people offended by his past remarks and non-apologies as "those people" who he can't let "win." He is also being supported by the black community - he is black. Black gays and trans kids and teens in the US are thrown out of their homes and beaten and killed by their parents at a rate higher (almost double) than all the other racial and ethnic groups combined. In other words, it may be difficult growing up gay or trans in America but if you do it while black your chances of being beaten by family and community, becoming homeless, or worse, murdered by family and community for being gay or trans pretty much double. Your chances are slim unless you are on the downlow.
You can probably imagine the response on social media to Ellen and her "reformed" friend has been extreme, so I thought I would contribute.
Jeff Sessions, for those who dont know, is a politician with an extreme racist past - so extreme that even his own state - one of the most racist in the country - said he was too extreme with his racism to be a judge there. He went on to be Trump's Attorney General for a while. BET is a black entertainment channel and the award show honors black creators and entertainers.
