James Woods Stands By Offensive Tweet About 'Gender Creative' Child
Don't expect James Woods to apologize for his homophobic tweet — the actor is standing by his words.
As Nicki Swift previously reported, the 70-year-old posted a snapshot on Monday, July 10, 2017, of 10-year-old CJ Duron enjoying the Pride Festival in Orange County, Calif. In the photo, his parents held signs that read, "I [heart] my gender creative son!" and "My son wears dresses & makeup...Get over it!"
In the disturbing caption, Woods wrote, "This is sweet. Wait until this poor kid grows up, realizes what you've done, and stuffs both of you dismembered into a freezer in the garage."
This is sweet. Wait until this poor kid grows up, realizes what you've done, and stuffs both of you dismembered into a freezer in the garage pic.twitter.com/1k3ITApFsF
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) July 10, 2017
The tweet went viral and sparked public outrage, with Neil Patrick Harris leading the pack on Tuesday, July 11. Calling out Woods for his "utterly ignorant and classless" tweet, the Gone Girl actor asserted, "you should be ashamed of yourself."
But Woods seems to have learned nothing, as he clenched down on the defense in a series of tweets on Wednesday, July 12. "Using one's child as a social justice propaganda doll is tantamount to child abuse. This is not about homophobia. Nice try though," the actor began. "Some children can be ruthlessly cruel to children who are simply different in any way. I humbly suggest making your child a target is unwise," he continued.
"I spent my entire adult life in the New York theatre scene, kids. I have more gay friends than Liberace. So let's stop the homophobia train," Woods went on. "This is not a defense. I'm old enough to remember the agony friends suffered for being different. Being wrongly accused of anything is vile," he added. The actor finally concluded, "And of course the final word on all of this is that I frankly don't give a sh*t what anybody thinks about me." Well, okay then.
CJ's mother, Lori Duron, recently spoke out against Woods in an interview with People, during which she called his initial tweet "hugely misinformed." "We've spent seven years sharing our journey to the public," Duron, who runs a blog called Raising My Rainbow, began. "We were on [Woods'] radar, but he wasn't on ours. It was shocking. I feel like adults should know better." Indeed.
"LGBTQ youth don't hurt their parents, they hurt themselves," she impassioned. "We're trying to raise our son in way that he doesn't fall into those behaviors. His tweet was so uninformed. LGBTQ youth do not kill other people, they kill themselves."