
Here’s a brief recap:
Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas and Perez Hilton have a little altercation cat fight outside an awards show. The heated exchange boiled over when Perez was apparently hit by The Black Eyed Peas manager, Liborio “Polo” Molina. This is when Perez went on the verbal attack calling Will.I.Am a “faggot.”
Perez Hilton’s made this initial remark on his site and to the media:
“And that is when I made the split-second decision – that I was gonna say what I thought was the worst possible thing that thug [will.i.am] would ever want to hear. As I was standing my ground – without being violent or physical which I would never do – I told him – and you know what? I don’t need to respect you and you’re a f**. You’re gay and stop being such a f***ot.”
GLAAD demanded an apology. (Surprise, surprise.)
Perez later released the following statement:
“People make mistakes. I have made many in my life, but this past week I have made more than I can count on one hand.
I am sorry. And I mean it. No one is forcing me to write this. I am not feeling pressured to say this. I am speaking out because I realize that the last few days have been more hurtful to me – and many others – than the repeated blows I suffered to my head in Toronto this past weekend.
I have been filled with incredible sadness and regret.
I am sorry that any good work I have done for promoting equality may be tainted by me reclaiming a hurtful word – that’s been personally used against me and the gay community – to hurt someone that was verbally attacking me. It was stupid.
Apologizing for me is not easy. Writing this was not easy. Life is not easy. But everything happens for a reason and I will take away a lot of valuable lessons from this experience.
Violence is never the answer. Never.
Victims should not be mocked.
The “F” word will never be uttered from my lips again. Just as others use the “N” word to insult and hurt – or as part of their everyday speech – I challenge them to remove it from their vocabulary as well.
Hindsight is always 20/20, they say. I should have been the bigger man and walked away from an unfortunate situation. Instead, I chose – in a very misguided way – to stand up for myself and only made things worse by how I – under pressure, anger and extreme emotion – handled the situation.
I am sorry.
I am NOT apologizing to GLAAD. I could care less about them, my former employers.
I am apologizing to the gay community, to anyone who was hurt by my choice of words, and to all the people who have ever emailed me to thank me for all that I have done to fight for gay rights over the last few years.
I have reached out to Isaiah Washington, someone I incorrectly labeled a homophobe in the past, despite his own public statements that he was not.
I will be donating any money collected from my lawsuit against Polo Molina, road manager for the Black Eyed Peas, to the Matthew Shepard Foundation.
And I will continue to speak out for equality and support the great work done by LGBT organizations, such as LAMBDA Legal and HRC.
Sincerely, Perez”
In response, GLAAD is still not happy (again- surprise, surprise.) And The Matthew Shepard Foundation released the following statement:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, June 25, 2009
303.830.7400 x10
STATEMENT FROM MATTHEW SHEPARD FOUNDATION REGARDING PEREZHILTON.COM
The Matthew Shepard Foundation was surprised to learn this morning via media reports that blogger Perez Hilton (Mario Lavandeira) has announced he plans to donate, to our organization, the proceeds of a lawsuit he is contesting over an altercation which has been widely reported in recent days.
We had no advance notice or contact from Mr. Hilton or his
representatives regarding this proposal, nor any communication since he posted this plan to his website.
We do not know the details of the lawsuit, whether it has been filed, the nature of his claims or the likely outcome. But because the lawsuit presumably involves the physical attack prompted by Mr. Hilton’s admitted use of an anti-gay slur, the Foundation will be unable to accept any funds obtained in such a manner.
We very much appreciate the generosity of the offer to support our continuing work to memorialize Matthew through activism in defense of sexual minorities and in favor of understanding, compassion, and acceptance. But because so much of our work involves education to reduce the use of hateful language against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons, or those so perceived, it would be inappropriate for us to benefit financially from circumstances in which such a verbal attack was involved.
While we applaud Mr. Hilton’s apology to the LGBT community and their loved ones for his use of such a slur, we also feel compelled to point out that use of epithets can often lead to physical violence, as it appears it may have in this case, and that the Matthew Shepard Foundation has worked for more than 10 years to bring to people’s attention the consequences of hateful or intolerant language.
Judy Shepard
Chair, MSF Governing Board
Thomas B. Howard, Jr., Ed.M.
Programs Director
Hhmm, I guess the Matthew Shepard Foundation is doing well in a tough economy and doesn’t need/want the potential funding that Perez could generate in winning his case. Whatever.
For the record, I reserve the right to use the term/word ‘faggot.’ As gays I believe we’ve earned that right; this includes fellow ‘fag’ Perez Hilton.