Self-proclaimed “Queen of Media” Perez Hilton claims to have been assaulted by Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am and their operations manager early yesterday morning. Hilton admits he called Will.i.am a “f*cking f*ggot.” This, after Hilton publicly called now-former Miss California Carrie Prejean a “b*tch.” (Hilton reportedly said, “I called her the B word, but I was thinking the C word.”) Hilton reportedly used that “C word” slur back in 2006 during an argument with a photographer.
Hilton has made a career out of “outing” people and out of being crude. (Being crude includes his video on YouTube entitled, “My Penis.”) But that’s evidently not been good enough for him. Recently, Hilton posted sexually explicit photographs of screenwriter, director, film, television producer, and LGBT rights activist Dustin Lance Black on his website. Did Black, who has done a great deal of good for the LGBT community, deserve to have private images of him having sex posted for the public to see? Could Hilton not control himself or think of what good he would do his community by not publishing the photographs?
Well, reaction to Hilton’s latest incident – sluring Will.i.am – has been swift. Those, like me, who said “Perez Hilton does not speak for me,” after the Miss California incident were lambasted. But now, it seems he’s gone too far. (Interesting, why is it the world will defend Perez Hilton even when he calls Carrie Prejean a b*tch and uses the “C word,” but when he calls Will.i.am a “f*cking f*ggot” the world finally gets it?)
The New York Times’ Jeremy W. Peters in, “Why the Gay Rights Movement Has No National Leader,” writes,
“The gay movement has always had a problem of achieving a dignity or a moral imperative that the black civil rights movement had, or the women’s rights movement claimed,†said Dudley Clendinen, who co-wrote the book “Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America†and now teaches writing at Johns Hopkins University. “Because this movement is fundamentally about the right to be sexual, it’s hard for the larger public to see that as a moral issue,†he said.
“By contrast, the moral authority that leaders like Dr. King, Ms. Friedan and Ms. Steinem could claim — and the fact that Americans did not look at them and imagine their sex lives — made it easier to build respectability with the public.
I disagree that our movement is about the right to be sexual – we don’t need anyone’s permission for that – our movement is about the right to be treated and perceived as equal. But Clendinen makes the correct point about respectability and dignity and the moral imperative of civil rights.
Perez Hilton takes all our hard work, all our struggles, and throws them out the window. Just as the DOJ’s DOMA brief took our movement back several decades, so does Hilton. Every time Perez Hilton makes news, the perception of gays and the gay rights movement suffers.
GLAAD – the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, issued a statement Monday condemning Hilton’s slur and asking “media outlets to avoid repetition of the slur in their coverage of this story.”
Does anyone else find it odd that Hilton wrote on Twitter,
His next tweet was two hours later, reporting the assault:
“I’m in shock. I need the police ASAP. Please come to the SoHo Metropolitan Hotel now. Please.“
I checked Twitter. I couldn’t find another time Hilton asked for a “safe” place to go.
On Twitter, the hashtag sentiment “#unfollowPerezHilton” has been gaining increasing popularity.
It’s time the gay community starts to call it like it is. Equality also means treating those within our community equally. And that means not supporting those who do not support us, regardless of who they are. Perez Hilton does not help us. Perez Hilton does not support us. He is a selfish, crude, media whore. It’s time we started listening to someone who speaks for us, to us, about us, in a responsible and respectful way. In a way that helps our cause. Not hurts our dignity.
Perez Hilton does not speak for me. Perez Hilton does not represent me, or my community. It’s time the gay community started respecting itself enough to stop supporting him.
(image: Current News Stories)