Stars Busted For Homophobic Comments

Hollywood is generally a LGBTQ-friendly place, but not all stars have an open-minded stance, and they can range from ignorant to downright hateful in their attitudes towards others. These stars all took heat for homophobic comments, and not all of them are apologetic about it...at least not at first.

Vivica A. Fox got some heat when she said the male strippers from Vivica's Black Magic wouldn't dance for gay men. When asked if her hunky troupe would perform for homosexual males, Fox told The Breakfast Club, "Hell naw! Back all that up. No...There's no need [to dance for gay men]. They dance for women. It's called 'the ultimate girls' night out' for a reason."

After Fox made the comments, Jean-Claude LaMarre, the director and producer of the series—as well as the man behind Chocolate City, from which the show is a spinoff—wasn't happy. LaMarre told TMZ that he was cutting ties with her over the remark, though he remains an executive producer on the show. "The comments were out of order, and it does not represent our attitudes toward the LGBT community. All are welcomed," LaMarre said. "Vivica speaks for herself not the business or the show."

Afterward, Fox publicly apologized via social media. "I've been a FRIEND [and] supporter of the LGBT community for years," she wrote on Instagram (via The New York Daily News). "My intention was not to offend anyone and I'm woman enough to apologize if you felt that way, My show has already been taped and I was just doing something for the ladies but all are welcome to enjoy Vivica's Black Magic Show! It's HAWT... I'm all about LOVE not HATE dawling! Have a blessed day."

Fox's former flame—who she herself insinuated was gay—had his own issues with alleged homophobia. 50 Cent has had to battle tales of homophobia for years, most of which stem from his own comments. In 2010, after a beef with blogger Perez Hilton, the rapper tweeted (via Paper), "Perez Hilton calld me douc***** so I had my homie shoot up a gay wedding. [Wasn't] his but still made me feel better." In 2012, he told XXL Magazine, "We need organizations for straight men in the case you've been on the elevator and somebody decides they want to grab your little buns."

However, he may be getting more progressive: In 2012, he supported gay marriage and advocated for singer Frank Ocean, who'd admitted to being in love with a man.

In 2013, he supported a transgender teen on Dream School and denied being homophobic while defending his use of homophobic slurs in his songs, telling The Wrap, "I don't have homophobia. I never did...I would use the terminology that would be going around. My grandfather may say terms—people may actually say terms based on their experiences that were happening at that point...You've got people that would call some people a redneck, or some people n****r. It's the term of that time or that period. They're not necessarily racist, but they've heard those terms used around them, and they use them."

Fitty's mentor, Eminem, has spent more than 15 years courting controversy with his lyrics. He was believed to have eased up on his use of slurs after a 2001 Grammy performance of his hit "Stan" with Elton John, but came under fire again with the release of "Rap God" in 2013, which included lyrics like, "Little gay-looking boy / So gay I can barely say it with a straight face-looking boy" and "You f**s think it's all a game 'til I walk a flock of flames."

He explained to Rolling Stone, "I don't know how to say this without saying it how I've said it a million times. But that word, those kind of words, when I came up battle-rappin' or whatever, I never really equated those words  [to actually mean 'homosexual']...It was more like calling someone a b***h or a punk or a**hole. So that word was just thrown around so freely back then. It goes back to that battle, back and forth in my head, of wanting to feel free to say what I want to say, and then [worrying about] what may or may not affect people."

""And, not saying it's wrong or it's right, but at this point in my career—man, I say so much s**t that's tongue-in-cheek," he continued. "I poke fun at other people, myself. But the real me sitting here right now talking to you has no issues with gay, straight, transgender, at all. I'm glad we live in a time where it's really starting to feel like people can live their lives and express themselves."

He added, "I've been doing this s**t for, what, 14 years now? And I think people know my personal stance on things and the personas that I create in my music. And if someone doesn't understand that by now, I don't think there's anything I can do to change their mind about it."

Gospel singer Kim Burrell collaborated with Pharrell Williams on the soundtrack to Hidden Figures, and the pair were scheduled to do press rounds together...until one of Burrell's sermons went viral in January 2017.

"I came to tell you about sin," Burrell said during a sermon at the Love And Liberty Fellowship Church International in Houston. "That perverted homosexual spirit, and the spirit of delusion and confusion, it has deceived many men and women."

Burrell went on Facebook Live to repudiate allegations of homophobia, saying, "There are a lot of people that I'm aware of that struggle or deal [with] or have that spirit. Have I discriminated against them? Have I ever outright told them that I don't love you and you going to hell?...I don't give that call."

Still, the damage was done: Ellen DeGeneres made Burrell persona non grata on her talk show, and Williams released a statement, saying, "I condemn hate speech of any kind. There is no room in this world for any kind of prejudice. My greatest hope is for inclusion and love for all humanity in 2017 and beyond." Hidden Figures star Janelle Monae reposted Williams' missive, adding, "I unequivocally repudiate ANY AND ALL hateful comments against the LGBTQ community. Actually I'm tired of that label. We all belong to the same community, a shared community called humanity. And today and tomorrow and the next day I will continue to stand with other like-minded people who condemn any and all statements and actions that would seek to deny the basic humanity of our fellow brothers and sisters."

Her backlash didn't end there. Even Frank Ocean's mom asked him to remove Burrell's vocals from a collaboration they'd done together.

Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson didn't earn any LGBTQ fans after his December 2013 GQ interview hit shelves. In the profile, he ranted, "Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men...Don't be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won't inherit the kingdom of God. Don't deceive yourself. It's not right."

The network that aired Duck Dynasty, A&E, wound up suspending him from the popular show, but it only lasted a few weeks. The show was canceled three years later.

During a heated on-set argument with Grey's Anatomy co-star Patrick Dempsey, Isaiah Washington reportedly used a homophobic slur to refer to their other co-star, T.R. Knight. Knight subsequently came out publicly as gay, and Washington allegedly repeated the slur backstage at the 2007 Golden Globes. Washington's contract on the show wasn't renewed. He later claimed he was never actually homophobic, but that he used the slur to refer to "someone who was weak."

In September 2012, Paris Hilton was busted for making really ignorant comments. In audio obtained by Radar Online, Hilton tells an openly gay male model pal, "Gay guys are the horniest people in the world. They're disgusting. Dude, most of them probably have AIDS."

Her rep told the site, "Paris Hilton's comments were to express that it is dangerous for anyone to have unprotected sex that could lead to a life threatening disease. The conversation became heated, after a close gay friend told her in a cab ride, a story about a gay man who has AIDS and is knowingly having unprotected sex. He also discussed a website that encourages random sex by gay men with strangers. As she was being shown the website her comments were in reference to those people promoting themselves on the site. The cab driver who recorded this, only provided a portion of the conversation. It was not her intent to make any derogatory comments about all gays. Paris Hilton is a huge supporter of the gay community and would never purposefully make any negative statements about anyone's sexual orientation."

While hosting a party in Mexico in December 2012, Charlie Sheen told the crowd, "How we doing? ... Lying bunch of f**got a**holes, how we doing?" Uh, what? He later apologized and explained to TMZ, saying, "I meant no ill will and intended to hurt no one and I apologize if I offended anyone...I meant to say maggot but I have a lisp." Uh, what?

According to The Advocate, Mel Gibson went on a homophobic rant in 1991 that contained some stuff so graphic, we can't even reprint most of it here. A tamer part of it contained the questions, "With this look, who's going to think I'm gay? I don't lend myself to that type of confusion. Do I look like a homosexual? Do I talk like them? Do I move like them?"

Two decades later, Gibson's brother, Andrew, who is gay, told The Advocate that Mel meant no harm. "He's a straight man and he was illustrating that fact," Andrew explained. "In the same way a gay man wouldn't want to have sex with a woman." Sure.

In an interview with Piers Morgan in 2012, former Growing Pains star Kirk Cameron said homosexuality "is unnatural...I think it's detrimental, and ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization...Marriage was defined by God a long time ago. Marriage is almost as old as dirt, and it was defined in the garden between Adam and Eve—one man, one woman for life till death do you part. So I would never attempt to try to redefine marriage. And I don't think anyone else should either. So do I support the idea of gay marriage? No, I don't."

His comments led to an intense Internet backlash, including tweets from his former Growing Pains co-stars Alan Thicke and Tracey Gold co-stars Alan Thicke and Tracey Gold.

During a June 2011 live standup performance, Tracy Morgan told the crowd that he'd stab his son if his son were gay. It didn't sit well with the Internet, nor with his boss at the time, Tina Fey, who told TMZ, "The violent imagery of Tracy's rant was disturbing to me at a time when homophobic hate crimes continue to be a life-threatening issue for the GLBT community. It also doesn't line up with the Tracy Morgan I know, who is not a hateful man and is generally much too sleepy and self-centered to ever hurt another person. I hope for his sake that Tracy's apology will be accepted as sincere by his gay and lesbian co-workers at 30 Rock, without whom Tracy would not have lines to say, clothes to wear, sets to stand on, scene partners to act with, or a printed-out paycheck from accounting to put in his pocket."

Morgan later apologized.

In June 2013, Morgan's 30 Rock co-star Alec Baldwin called a reporter for The Daily Mail a "queen" in an angry rant. In November 2013, he lost a cable news gig with MSNBC after he went on a homophobic rant against a New York Post writer in November 2013.

This eventually led Baldwin to write a piece for New York magazine claiming that, no, he wasn't a homophobe and that he was essentially done with public life. About two months later, in April 2014, he was accused of insinuating that a former Mitt Romney staffer was gay. Which, yeah...

At the Academy Of Country Music Awards in April 2011, Blake Shelton made a joke about Jake Gyllenhaal's role in Brokeback Mountain when asked why he'd ever dump Taylor Swift. A month later, he came under fire for tweets that were perceived to be homophobic. In August 2016, Twitter users dredged up some of Shelton's tweets from between 2009 and 2012, one of which read, "Grown men who wear Chuck Taylors may as well write on their forehead, 'Cucumbers turn me on.'" Another said, "Question for my gay followers...are Skittles y'alls favorite candy?" A third read, "Standing in line at a coffee shop in LA talking with the man in front of me. He orders a skinny caramel latte. I couldn't tell he was gay!!!"

He apologized after the tweets went viral, writing, "Everyone knows comedy has been a major part of my career and it's always been out there for anyone to see. That said anyone that knows me also knows I have no tolerance for hate of any kind or form. Can my humor at times be inappropriate and immature? Yes. Hateful? Never. That said I deeply apologize to anybody who may have been offended."

Shelton's former fellow coach on The Voice Cee Lo Green went on a bizarre Twitter rant of his own in June 2011. When a music critic called one of his live performances "lackluster," he wrote (via E! News), "I respect your criticism, but be fair! People enjoyed last night! I'm guessing you're gay? And my masculinity offended you? Well f**k you!" Afterward, he issue a half-apology, writing, "Apologies gay community! What was homophobic about that? I said I was guessing he [was] gay which is fine but its nice to [know] what u think of me." Uh, what?

He later deleted the first quasi-apology tweet and then issued a full statement about the incident.

"She was very critical of me. At the time I didn't even know what gender the person was," he said. "I was being a little outspoken that night, a little outrageous. I always expect people to assume that everything I do is part of my character and sense of humor. I assumed that whoever it was would assume that it was all in good fun...I most certainly am not harboring any sort of negative feeling toward the gay community. I don't have an opinion on people with different religious, sexual or political preferences. I'm one of the most liberal artists that I think you will ever meet, and I pride myself on that. Two of the remaining members that I have on my team on The Voice are proud and outspokenly gay. We just did a team performance of 'Everyday People' and I picked that song for us to do specifically to highlight how we can get along even though we're so different."

In June 2014, TMZ cameras captured Jonah Hill screaming a homophobic slur at a paparazzo. Days later, he apologized profusely on The Howard Stern Show (via People). "I'm upset because from the day I was born, and publicly, I've been a gay-rights activist. Now, this person, you saw a 40-second video. This person had been following me around—just to give it some context, not excusing what I said in any way— this person had been following me around all day, had been saying hurtful things about my family, really hurtful things about me personally, and I played into exactly what he wanted and lost my cool."

He added, "In that moment, I said a disgusting word that does not at all reflect how I feel about any group of people. I grew up with gay family members. I'm leaving here to go spend the day with one of my closest co-workers and best friend who is gay, who's getting married, who I'm going to stand at his wedding. You know? I'm not at all defending my choice of words but I am happy to be the poster boy for thinking about what you say and how those words, even if you don't intend them and how they mean, they are rooted in hate, and that's bulls**t. I shouldn't have said that."

Andrew Garfield's greatest crime against the LGBTQ community may have been trying too hard to endear himself to it. In discussing his role as Prior Walter, a gay man with AIDS in the 1980s, in a London production of Angels In America, Garfield put his foot in his mouth in a big way.

"As far as I know, I am not a gay man," Garfield said (via The Gay Times). "Maybe I'll have an awakening later in my life, which I'm sure will be wonderful and I'll get to explore that part of the garden, but right now I'm secluded to my area, which is wonderful as well. I adore it."

Not so bad, right? Except he later declared his undying love for RuPaul's Drag Race, which, while an amazing show, came off as a pandering move as well as the proliferation of a stereotype to many.

"My only time off during rehearsals — every Sunday — I would have eight friends over and we would just watch Ru," he said. "This is my life outside of this play. I am a gay man right now just without the physical act – that's all."

The criticism was swift, especially on Twitter.

Garfield has yet to comment further on the controversy he stirred up. Perhaps the best option is to, well, sashay away.