Stars Busted For Homophobic Comments

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."

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."

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.

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."

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.

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.

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."

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."