Billy Porter, who recently earned a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the F/X series Pose, has slammed comedian Kevin Hart in a new interview over his past homophobic language.
Kevin was asked to host the 2019 Oscars recently but backed out shortly after old tweets of his that used homophobic language were dug up on Twitter. The Academy has not announced who the new host will be, although there have been some suggestions floating on the internet over who could replace him.
The Tony winner brought up Kevin in a new interview with Consequence of Sound about how people like him are oppressing others the same way that he’s being oppressed.
Billy spoke about how other comedians like Kevin have brought up gay jokes in the past but is aware that they aren’t homophobic. He used Mo’Nique as an example.
“I think Monique, a long time ago, she did a joke about butt sex. It was a whole thing about butt sex and ‘the gays,’ you know. And the punchline was something like, ‘Yeah, but don’t knock it till you try it!’ And then we must stop the person who we know is using a joke, but she’s not a homophobic person. She’s not saying, ‘If I come home and my four-year-old son is playing with a baby doll house, I’m gonna break it over his head and tell him it’s gay'."
One of Kevin’s old tweets said something along the lines of what Billy was discussing. “Yo if my son comes home & try’s 2 play with my daughters doll house I’m going 2 break it over his head & say n my voice ‘stop that’s gay',” Kevin tweeted back in 2011.
“That crosses a line,” he continued. “Because that allows your fans to think that (you can) hit somebody because you don’t like them. You don’t like their sexuality, ‘so I can bash you in the head.’ We’re not doing that anymore."
"And that is what Pose challenges. That’s what we’re saying. Y’all don’t get to have that language no more without somebody on the other side challenging that. You had long enough to spew that darkness into the world without somebody on the other side shedding some light on it. We’re done with that.”
He further went in on Kevin and fellow comedian D.L. Hughley, who has also been called out on his past homophobic language.
"I say to Kevin Hart, and I say to D.L. Hughley, I say to those people who think that they don’t need to apologize for shit and dig their heels in their toxic masculinity: But you want your rights! You want people to stop shooting your children in the back? But yet still, you turn around and oppress other people the same way you’re being oppressed."
He finished this part of the interview by simply saying "F**k that. F**k you. We’re done."
“You want people to stop
"You want people to stop shooting your children in the back? But yet still, you turn around and oppress other people the same way you’re being oppressed." Am I reading this properly? Has Mr. Porter just equated homophobic commentary and slander with the killing of black children? Is that right?
Dude, I was with you up to that very pint. Throughout my long life starting when I was learning to read, I've read about Back children being slaughtered by random shootings and by police actions in SE Florida. Unlike gay folk who can call out homophobic humor, very few of the Black children whose shootings I've read about have lived to speak out against their being shot.
If I didn't object to outrage on general principle; I'd be outraged by this ridiculous equating of two very different things. There ARE differences.