When Tracy Morgan‘s homophobic rant from a comedy gig in Nashville on June 3 surfaced online recently, you just knew it was going to stir up trouble. Gay rights groups were quickly up in arms over Tracy Morgan saying that gays need to get over being whiny pussies and ‘man up’.
“God don’t make no mistakes; all this gay stuff is bullshit,†Tracy Morgan said in his routine, adding: “There is no way a woman could love and have sexual desire for another woman, that’s just a woman pretending because she hates a f*****g man.†He also said being gay is a choice and “something that kids learn from the media and programming” and he would kill his son if he were a whiny gay.
According to audience member Kevin Rogers, who described Tracy Morgan’s Nashville performance in a Facebook post titled “Why I No Longer ‘Like’ Tracy Morgan — A must Read,” the comedian was not deterred by those who were offended by his routine. “If gays can take a dick up their ass, they can take a joke,” Rogers claims Morgan said.
The 30 Rock star issued a press statement on Friday afternoon apologizing for the homophobic rant, saying the comedy bit went too far and “was not funny in any context.” Morgan said he wanted to “apologize to my fans and the gay & lesbian community for my choice of words at my recent stand-up act in Nashville. I’m not a hateful person and don’t condone any kind of violence against others.”
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation called on Tracy Morgan to remove all anti-gay remarks from his gigs and “send a strong message that anti-gay violence is not something to joke about.”
The Human Rights Campaign stated it was glad Morgan apologized, but it was not enough. HRC said Morgan now “has a responsibility to make amends for his horribly hurtful and dangerous ‘comedy’ routine.”