I’m going to admit something to you now that you may find a little suspect, possibly even disgusting and hypocritical coming from a super liberal pseudo-socialist like me: I love awards shows, and the Golden Globes, even more than the Academy Awards, is my absolute favorite. Every year my roommate and I buy a bottle of champagne and a box of fancy cheese and sit back to watch the celebrities get drunk off their asses and make fools of themselves. Last year Geena Davis won for best actress in a television drama for her series Commander in Chief, which had pretty much already been canceled at the time. She told a ridiculously adorable story about a little girl who’d come up to her on the red carpet and explained that Geena’s role made her realize that women could be president, too.
“Which would be very heart-warming, if it wasn’t a total lie,” she finished off. Yeah, I love the Golden Globes. This year was no exception to the drunken celebrities saying ridiculous shit.
Enter Isaiah Washington, an actor on the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, which had just won for best television drama. In the press room after, Washington, who had been the subject of many a gossip blog since a rather hushed-up incident in October involving Patrick Dempsey and then-closeted gay actor TR Knight, decided to set the record straight. Literally.
“I did not call TR a faggot,” he told the press, spurning about a hundred million calls for his immediate firing. Thus began the new era of Washington’s career: Faggotgate.
Back up to October, when the original incident occurred. A tabloid picked up the story which quickly made the glossy circuit of People, OK!, and Life and Style: that Washington had called co-star TR Knight a faggot behind his back to Patrick Dempsey, who felt the need to defend TR’s honor in unarmed battle. When I imagine the ensuing fistfight, Washington and Dempsey are bare-chested, possibly wearing only loincloths or, if those are unavailable, very tight boxer briefs. Also, they’re wet, and making out instead of fighting. My fantasies apparently don’t give a shit what slurs Washington uses, as long as nakedness is involved. I have an equal opportunity imagination.
In any case, word of the conflict got out, and TR decided to come out, too. “I’d like to quiet any unnecessary rumors that may be out there. I hope the fact that I’m gay isn’t the most interesting part of me.”
Sorry honey, it pretty much is, but I appreciate the classiness of your statement.
We all thought that that would be the end of it. Washington reportedly apologized to Dempsey and Knight, and despite the lack of hot man-on-man action on the Grey’s set, everything seemed to be getting back to normal. And then the Golden Globes happened, and Washington, possibly misjudging Hollywood’s love of the gays, went ahead and said ‘faggot’ again.
While Katherine Heigle proceeded to freak out in the opposite direction (and damn, but I can’t help loving her for being so angry on her friend’s behalf, but also because she was just so good on Roswell, and damn the WB for canceling that show!), TR went on the Ellen Degeneres show to discuss the matter. Again, in a really classy way, where he made a lot of noise about how courageous Ellen is for coming out ten years ago, and how inspiring her coming out has been to the GLBT entertainment community as a whole. Washington continued to say ridiculous things like, “I love the gay, I want to be gay, please let me be gay” while the Grey’s PR machine worked overtime to handle the fallout, sending Washington to meet with community GLBT leaders and, ultimately, rehab.
Yes, you heard me right, rehab. Because apparently being a prejudiced bigoted asshole is a lot like snorting 8 balls. I can just imagine that group therapy session: Washington circled up with Lindsey Lohan, Pete Dougherty, and Keith Urban while they talk about hitting their low points, fucking up their relationships and accidentally-on-purpose flashing their crotches to the paparazzi while Washington sits there thinking, “This is all that fucking faggot’s fault.”
Faggotgate is pretty funny when you really stop to think about the stupidity of it all, but this brings up a very real and very important issue for gay men and women in America. In 34 states, it is absolutely legal to fire someone solely based on their sexual orientation. In 44 states it is legal to fire someone based on their gender identity. I lived in South Carolina for a year and during human rights day, talked with a lesbian couple that was forced to remain closeted in their public lives because they faced the very real threat of being fired should they decide to be open about their orientation. They were forced to endure words like ‘faggot’ and ‘carpetmuchers’ on a daily basis; forced to endure the word ‘gay’ being bandied about as if it were a synonym for ‘stupid’ or ‘something with a lot of negative connotations,’ ie, ‘Dude, this report is so gay, I can’t believe we have to do these TPS cover sheets. Our boss is such a faggot.’ Language is tricky and up for interpretation, but when you can’t even admit that you’re gay at work because of the very real possibility that you’ll be fired, you’re probably not going to tell someone off for harassment. Also, you would get laughed at, and then maybe fired.
TR Knight should consider himself lucky that he inhabits a world that embraces gays and seeks to defend us so much so that a vast majority of the press and bloggers believe Washington should be fired for his bigoted statements. If they weren’t on television and lived in, say, South Carolina or Texas or one of the other 34 states where it is legal to be fired for being gay, this story would read quite differently.
You know what I’d like to know? How it is possible that in a country—hell, in most of an entire planet—it is illegal to fire someone because they’re black or Hispanic or female or physically handicapped or mentally ill, and yet it it’s not only legal, but considered perfectly ethical and moral, to fire someone who is gay? Detractors say that being gay is a choice, hence the difference, but even if I was willing to buy into that argument, you can’t be fired for your religious affiliation, which is most certainly a choice (although ironically, you can be fired based on your lack thereof). To me, this is a clear violation of human rights. It’s no wonder the United States has failed to become a beacon of democracy and freedom around the world, when we don’t even practice those things in our own country.
I think that, in the end, Faggotgate illustrates just how much Americans are at a crossroads on the issue of homosexuality. For the past decade, Republicans have been trying to use homosexuality to widen the divide between themselves and Democrats, to show that, somehow, hating gay people and denying them the basic human rights afforded all other Americans, such as the right to work without harassment, or at all, makes them the party of morals. If by ‘morals’ they mean ‘discrimination and hatred,’ then sure, I’ll go with it. The Republicans can be the party of morals; I just want equality for the rest of us.
Links:
[On workplace discrimination in the United States]
[Isaiah Washington meets with gay leaders]