The Gay Mafia is upset because Rep. Gabbard believes in traditional marriage. Why can’t she believe this and the homosexuals just be tolerant? They want to force us to believe their vile life style. Join Our Video Platform Now: commonsensenation.net/videos/
Democratic presidential contender Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is under fire for her past activism and statements in favor of traditional marriage and against “homosexual activists.”
Gabbard, described by CNN as “the first Hindu and American Samoan” elected to Congress, made a surprise announcement Friday that she would be running for president in 2020.
She is a left-wing Democrat and Iraq War veteran with a history of iconoclastic stances. In 2016, she resigned from a leadership position on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to support Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), for president, and was one of the first to raise the alarm about then-chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s effort to tilt the Democratic Party presidential primary in favor of establishment favorite Hillary Clinton.
Just last week, Gabbard blasted Democrats in the Senate — including a fellow Hawaiian and fellow “progressives” — for questioning a judicial nominee’s Catholic faith, including his membership in the Knights of Columbus.
Now, however, Gabbard is facing similar accusations after a CNN report by researched Andrew Kaczynski that detailed her family’s past support for traditional marriage.
When Tulsi Gabbard first ran for office she touted her work to pass a measure allowing the Hawaii to ban same-sex marriage as the reason she should be elected.
The organization she worked for supported gay conversion therapy and ex-gay ministries. https://t.co/VxKBt1mQkH
On Twitter, Kaczynski opined that Gabbard’s anti-gay views were “next level.”
The report, “Tulsi Gabbard once touted working for anti-gay group that backed conversion therapy,” accuses her of “anti-gay” stances (original link):
Tulsi Gabbard herself is quoted in a 2000 press release from The Alliance for Traditional Marriage. In it, she attacks gay rights activists who were opposed to her mother Carol’s bid for the state’s board of education.
Tulsi Gabbard’s anti-gay efforts continued after she became a state representative.
Shortly after Gabbard announced her presidential ambitions Friday, her testimony at a hearing opposing a civil unions bill in 2004 resurfaced.
“To try to act as if there is a difference between ‘civil unions’ and same-sex marriage is dishonest, cowardly and extremely disrespectful to the people of Hawaii,” Gabbard said at the time. “As Democrats we should be representing the views of the people, not a small number of homosexual extremists.”
Gabbard has since changed her views and apologized for her past statements in 2012, according to the New Yorker.
The left-wing media seized on the story. “Tulsi Gabbard’s Homophobic Remarks Surface After 2020 Presidential Announcement,” ran a headline at HuffPost. On social media, writer Mark Harris declared Gabbard a “flat no.”
Catholic priest, 73, who had 2,000 images and videos of child porn, discussed raping and murdering young boys in chat rooms, and once admitted to peeing in the wine for Mass is sentenced to 25 years in prison
Thomas Faucher pleaded guilty to distributing, possessing child pornography
He called himself ‘one sick puppy’ as he apologized to the courtroom Thursday
Possessed ‘violent, disturbing, and torturous’ images that involved children
Faucher told someone online he wanted to sexually abuse boys, was attracted to six-year-old boys, and that the thought of killing someone excited him
Faucher also revealed in chats he wanted to sexually abuse altar boys and babies
Police also found photographs of him peeing on a cross and a canon law book
A Catholic priest who had more than 2,000 photos and videos of child pornography on his computer and phone has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Thomas Faucher, a well-known priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise, will not be eligible for parole and must register as a sex offender.
Faucher, 73, pleaded guilty to five felony crimes after investigators discovered thousands of disturbing images and chats about raping and murdering young boys.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of distribution of sexually exploitative material, two counts of possession of sexually exploitative materials, and one count of drug possession.
Faucher called himself ‘one sick puppy’ as he apologized to the courtroom before his sentencing on Thursday, according to the Idaho Statesman.
‘I am deeply sorry that I was and have been connected to that in any way,’ he told 4th District Court Judge Jason Scott.
‘I was one really sick puppy. I screwed up big time. I feel so much remorse and anger.’
Faucher, a well-known priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise, will not be eligible for parole and must register as a sex offender
Faucher tried to convince the judge that he should not receive jail time so that he could help others and ‘give lectures on the evils of child pornography’, saying there were ‘many people’ who would ‘benefit’ if he wasn’t behind bars.
‘There are no people who will benefit if I am in jail or prison,’ he added.
But Scott was not convinced, calling the priest a ‘legitimate risk to the community’.
‘This is a crime that has potential for both immediate and long-lasting consequences,’ the judge added.
Detective John Brumbaugh of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force took to the stand on Thursday to describe the extent of disturbing content he found on Faucher’s devices.
Brumbaugh said he first received a tip regarding two images that had been sent from the email address wtfauch@aol.com.
He then began investigating Faruch, discovering thousands of ‘violent, disturbing, and torturous’ images that involved ‘young-looking subjects’.
Faucher spoke extensively to a person called ‘Bruno’, telling them that he wanted to have sex with boys – including some in his own family – and was attracted to six-year-old boys.
The priest also told Bruno that he had ‘satanic desires’ and that the ‘thought of killing someone does begin to excite me’.
He admitted to fantasies about sexually abusing altar boys and babies and said he enjoyed watching a video of a boy being beaten to death.
Investigators found images of Faucher peeing on a cross and a canon law book. In one chat, Faucher claimed he urinated in the wine for Mass.
The priest had a Dropbox, shared with another user, titled ‘Innocence Defiled’. He admitted in chats that he felt ‘wonderful indifference’ as he solicited more child pornography.
Faucher was was initially charged with 21 counts of felony sexual exploitation of a child when he was arrested in February
‘It felt good to lie for no good reason except to do it,’ Faucher told Bruno in one chat.
‘Most of the time, I just make a new reality and believe it as long as it suits me.’
Details of the images and conversations were so graphic that many chose to leave the Ada County Courtroom on Thursday. Some were in tears.
Brumbaugh said the images even took a toll on himself and others who were working on the investigation.
‘The volume was something I haven’t come across,’ he told the courtroom.
Faucher was arrested in February. He told Brumbaugh that no one else had access to his email account.
He was initially charged with 21 counts of felony sexual exploitation of a child, as well as one count of felony possession of LSD and possession of marijuana and ecstasy.
Brumbaugh said there was no evidence in which Faucher expressed that he did not want to receive child pornography.
While pleading guilty, Faucher claimed that he couldn’t remember sharing child porn because he had alcohol-induced depression and dementia.
Following Faucher’s arrest, two men alleged that the priest had sexually abused them.
While the statute of limitations for most child sex crimes in Idaho was removed in 2006, the law was not retroactive – meaning abuse charges will likely never be filed.
Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Kassandra Slaven had asked for a 30-year prison sentence, noting that Faucher was diagnosed a pedophile and that an evaluation found there was a high risk he would reoffend.
‘It shakes the community. It shakes the members of the Catholic Church,’ she said. ‘He portrays himself as a victim and is not at all accountable for his actions.’
Defense attorney Mark Manweiler asked that Faucher receive probation and treatment, arguing that the evidence didn’t prove the priest looked at all the images on his computer and claiming Faucher ‘never sexually abused any child’.
Officials from the Diocese of Boise were in court for the sentencing, and spokesman Gene Fadness said they will seek to have Faucher defrocked.
‘It’s been agonizing every day for the parishioners at Saint Mary’s and for those in the community, even outside Saint Mary’s,’ he said.
‘[Faucher] was not just a priest, but a prominent priest, well known. This has been very difficult for everyone involved.’
‘Almost immediately after [Thursday], we will submit our case to Rome.’
The diocese also released a statement reiterating Fadness’ words.
‘The volumes of shocking information that the law enforcement investigation uncovered reveal the heinous nature of child pornography and the tragic impact upon its victims,’ the statement read.
‘While we cannot begin to fathom what brought Faucher to the point that he was able to enter into this evil and dark world, we are thankful for the efforts of the law enforcement community in doing what it can to protect our children from these crimes.’
Faucher was evicted from the home he rented from the diocese following his arrest. They had it exorcised before selling it.
An 11-year-old boy known as “Desmond Is Amazing” danced on stage at a New York gay bar while grown men tossed dollar bills at him.
“The pre-adolescent boy, dressed in drag to imitate singer Gwen Stefani, pranced around the stage at Brooklyn’s 3 Dollar Bill, an LGBT bar described as ‘queer owned & operated,’ and ‘Brooklyn’s Premiere Queer Bar & Performance Venue,’” LifeSiteNews reports.
For reasons that suddenly make sense, the bar enforces a strict ban on cell phone usage.
One Yelp reviewer wrote that the bar makes you “put your phone into a locked magnet pouch at the door, so it can’t be used while there. You can slip it into your pocket but can’t get in the pouch.”
Below Good Morning America Praising Him
Another explained it this way: “The club put our phones in these locked sleeves, which we could [carry] around the club.”
The first to report this about the sexual exploitation of this child was a YouTuber named Yosef Ozia, who connected all these dots based on the Yelp reviews:
As you can see in the video, this 11-year-old boy is dressed in drag and prancing around wearing a tank top as grown men cheer and throw money.
In even creepier news, “Desmond Is Amazing” has been celebrated by the establishment media.
The Daily Beast and NBC News have both gushed over what can only be described as the sexual exploitation of a child.
According to LifeSite, “ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ (GMA) recently devoted a segment to the boy during which his cross-dressing was celebrated as an example of individuality, and his parents were praised for their support of his drag hobby.”
The Daily Wire reports that this exploitation has been going on for years: “When Desmond was just six years old, he was featured in a music video with drag queen and Season Six winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Jinkx Monsoon. As a fourth-grader, the child was used to advance the LGBT agenda, giving a speech at New York City’s Pride in 2017.”
According to Desmond’s biography, he came out as a homosexual — when he was born:
Desmond was born in June 2007, during NYC Pride Week, at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan. As he tells it, this means that he “is a member of the Village People by default”. He has also claimed that he “came out of the closet when he was born”. Desmond has a loving family and lives in New York City with his father, mother, and many pets. He also has an older sister. Desmond’s nickname at home is Desi.
In this same write up, though, Desmond’s parents claim they are just letting him do what he wants — that a therapist told them this is healthy. In other words, if he enjoys dressing like a girl, being an LGBT icon, and performing in drag, let him.
But it also says this [emphasis added]:
Although he wants everyone to express themselves as genuinely as possible, he is concerned about the growing trend of young teen and child drag performers to dress or act overly sexy or provocatively, much like their adult counterparts. He feels that it sends the wrong message about all young drag performers and results in added aggression, bullying, and hatred, not only from society, but from within the LGBTQ community itself. Although an often controversial topic, he would personally like to see more young people discovering a drag style that speaks to their personal truth, but is at the same time, more age appropriate.
So, in public, Desmond is presented as a child just doing what he loves but in a healthy way that is not “overly sexual” or “provocative,” in a manner that is “age appropriate.”
But at gay bars where your phone’s recording devices are disabled upon entry, 11-year-old Desmond’s parents have him dancing around on stage in a tank top while grown men hoot, holler, and throw money.
According to my watch, the Second Coming is already ten minutes late.
If you thought the Supreme Court would be Conservative, well think again.
The Supreme Court declined to review three cases relating to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood at the state level Monday, over a vigorous dissent from Justice Clarence Thomas.
The dissent was significant because it indicates that Justice Brett Kavanaugh sided with the high court’s liberal wing to deny review of a lower court decision that favored the nation’s largest abortion provider.
“So what explains the Court’s refusal to do its job here?,” Thomas wrote. “I suspect it has something to do with the fact that some respondents in these cases are named ‘Planned Parenthood.’”
I guest Brett forgot what the damn liberals did to he and his family.
“Some tenuous connection to a politically fraught issue does not justify abdicating our judicial duty,” Thomas added. “If anything, neutrally applying the law is all the more important when political issues are in the background.”
Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch joined the Thomas dissent, meaning there were three votes in favor of taking the case. Since four votes are needed for the Supreme Court to take up a case, the opinion indicates that Chief Justice John Roberts and Kavanaugh joined with the four liberals to deny review.
This move could indicate that Roberts and Kavanaugh are loath to take take up an abortion-related question in the aftermath of Kavanaugh’s contentious confirmation. The Court’s new junior justice has generally kept a low profile since taking the bench in October.
Both of these phonies are liberals.
Justice Clarence Thomas participates in taking a new family photo with his fellow justices at the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Monday’s cases arose when Republican state leaders in Louisiana and Kansas stripped Planned Parenthood of state Medicaid funds after a pro-life advocacy group presented evidence that the abortion-provider was harvesting and selling fetal materials. Planned Parenthood contests the accuracy of these claims.
Planned Parenthood and several unnamed female patients challenged the states’ move in federal court. The legal question in Monday’s cases was whether Medicaid recipients can challenge the disqualification of a provider under the Medicaid law. As such, it did not touch on abortion directly.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Planned Parenthood on that question in June 2017, prompting an appeal to the Supreme Court. That ruling is left in place now that the justices have refused to take the case.
Pro-life groups swiftly expressed their displeasure following Monday’s announcement.
“We are disappointed the Supreme Court declined to hear this case,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List. “The pro-life citizens of states like Kansas and Louisiana, through their elected representatives, have clearly expressed their will: they do not want Medicaid tax dollars used to prop up abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood.”
The Trump administration is currently formulating a new federal regulation called the Protect Life Rule which would forbid public funding of Planned Parenthood under Title X.
Former FBI Director James Comey revealed in closed-door testimony with House Republicans on Friday that he deliberately concealed an explosive memorandum about his one-on-one Oval Office meeting with President Trump in February 2017 from top Department of Justice officials.
The former FBI head also acknowledged that when the agency initiated its counterintelligence probe into possible collusion between Trump campaign officials and the Russian government in July 2016, investigators “didn’t know whether we had anything” and that “in fact, when I was fired as director [in May 2017], I still didn’t know whether there was anything to it.”
His remarks square with testimony this summer from former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, whose anti-Trump texts became a focus of House GOP oversight efforts. Page told Congress in a closed-door deposition that “even as far as May 2017” — more than nine months after the counterintelligence probe commenced — “we still couldn’t answer the question” as to whether Trump staff had improperly colluded with Russia.
Comey further testified on Friday that he and his aides were “all very concerned” about how the president had spoken of the probe into fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn in a private Oval Office meeting, according to a 235-page transcript of his remarks released as a part of an agreement between House Republicans and Comey.
Former FBI Director James Comey testifies in closed-door interview on the Hill; chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge reports.
The fired FBI director wrote in his memorandum that Trump had told him, “I hope you can let this go,” amid reports that Flynn had lied to the FBI and senior White House officials about his contacts with Russia’s government.
But despite that concern, Comey told Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, that he and his team made a “judgment call” not to tell then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions or his lieutenants about Trump’s comments, saying he thought Sessions would recuse himself “in a matter of days” from the Russia probe.
“We agreed that we ought to hold it very close, not brief the investigative team at this point and not go over and talk to the leadership of the Department of Justice, to hold onto it until we got a new deputy attorney general and they sorted out how they were going to supervise the Russia investigation,” Comey said.
Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, at center, pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. (AP)
Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was later fired for leaking a self-serving story to the press and lying about it to Comey and federal investigators, was among the brain trust Comey sat down with to discuss his options. The two were joined, Comey said, by then-FBI General Counsel James Baker and Comey’s chief of staff, James Rybicki.
Comey told lawmakers that others may have been present as well, including FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich (who was an associate deputy director at the time), National Security Branch Executive Director Carl Ghattas, and FBI counterintelligence head Bill Priestap, who recently announced he would leave the agency by year-end. Comey said that he did not believe anti-Trump FBI Agent Peter Strzok or former FBI lawyer Lisa Page were in the room.
Comey testified: “We believed that the Attorney General, Mr. Sessions, was on the cusp of recusing himself from anything related to Russia, so it didn’t make any sense to brief him on it, and that there was no deputy attorney general at that point.” (Sally Yates, a holdover from the Obama administration, was terminated by Trump in late January 2017 after she refused to defend the administration’s ban on travel from several Muslim-majority nations in court.)
“We agreed that we ought to hold it very close.”
— Former FBI Director James Comey
Sessions recused himself from Russia-related matters shortly afterward, in early March 2017 — a decision that Trump has since called a “terrible mistake,” although it was recommended by career Justice Department officials in part because Sessions had met with Russian dignitaries while assisting with the Trump campaign. But Jordan pressed Comey on why he decided not to tell the next-in-command at the DOJ.
Lawmakers release transcript of testimony from former FBI Director James Comey; reaction from Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican member of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees.
“I don’t know who was No. 3 at that point,” Comey responded. “There was an acting — there was a U.S. Attorney acting as the deputy attorney general, who we knew would be in the seat only until Rod Rosenstein was confirmed,” he added, in an apparent reference to former Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente, who served until Rosenstein took the job in April 2017.
Comey continued that “it made sense to hold onto it” because “we saw no investigative urgency.”
But unredacted sections of Comey’s other memoranda documenting his conversations with Trump apparently demonstrate that he later did inform Boente and other top DOJ officials about other sensitive matters concerning his conversations with the president.
In a memorandum documenting his phone conversation with Trump on March 30, 2017, about how to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation from the White House, Comey wrote, “I called the acting attorney general and relayed the substance of the above and said I was telling him so he could decide what guidance to give me, if any.”
In a call from the White House that day, Comey wrote that Trump had asked him “several times” to “find a way to get out” to the public that he was not actively under investigation as part of the ongoing federal probe into possible Russia collusion with his team. Comey assured Trump, and congressional leaders, that the president was not being investigated at the time.
Former FBI Director James Comey, with his attorney, David Kelley, right, speaks to reporters after a day of testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Dec. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) (Associated Press)
House Republicans are set to have another opportunity to question Comey before they lose majority status when the new Congress is seated in January. The fired FBI director told reporters his return visit for more testimony will likely come the “week after next.”
Comey largely frustrated GOP lawmakers during Friday’s session, in large part because his lawyers urged him not to answer numerous questions. On Twitter after his testimony, Comey sharply criticized what he characterized as Republicans’ “desperate attempt to find anything that can be used to attack the institutions of justice investigating this president.”
But while Comey insisted in the interview that “we never investigated the Trump campaign for political purposes,” the transcript shows he claimed ignorance or memory lapses in response to questions concerning key details and events in the Russia investigation, which some GOP lawmakers continue to claim was improperly conducted.
The transcript reveals lawmakers’ frustration with his lack of specifics. Asked if he recalled who drafted the FBI’s “initiation document” for the July 2016 Russia investigation, Comey said, “I do not.” He again claimed not to know when asked about the involvement in that initiation of Peter Strzok, whose anti-Trump texts later got him removed from the special counsel’s probe.
When asked if the FBI had any evidence that anyone in the Trump campaign conspired to hack the DNC server, Comey gave a lengthy answer referring to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation as to why he couldn’t answer.
Early Sunday, Trump slammed Comey’s testimony repeatedly on Twitter, deriding him as “Leakin’ James Comey.”
On 245occasions, former FBI Director James Comey told House investigators he didn’t know, didn’t recall, or couldn’t remember things when asked. Opened investigations on 4 Americans (not 2) – didn’t know who signed off and didn’t know Christopher Steele. All lies!
Leakin’ James Comey must have set a record for who lied the most to Congress in one day. His Friday testimony was so untruthful! This whole deal is a Rigged Fraud headed up by dishonest people who would do anything so that I could not become President. They are now exposed!
But there was a time when Comey, by his own accounting, didn’t think of himself as the kind of person who would leak information behind the president’s back.
In a Jan. 28, 2017, dinner with Trump in the White House’s Green Room, Comey wrote in a since-released memorandum that he told the president, “I don’t do sneaky things, I don’t leak, I don’t do weasel moves.“
James Comey Admits FBI Was Still Probing ‘Pee’ Dossier Until Day He Was Fired
At the time James B. Comey was fired as FBI director, his agency was still attempting to corroborate claims made in the infamous, largely-discredited anti-Trump dossier, Comey admitted.
In testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Friday, Comey described an effort “to try to replicate, either rule in or rule out, as much of that collection of reports that’s commonly now called the Steele dossier as possible, and that that work was ongoing when I was fired.” Trump dismissed Comey from the FBI on May 9, 2017.
A transcript of Comey’s testimony was released on Saturday. During one exchange with lawmakers, Comey said that FBI efforts to probe the dossier given to the agency by former British spy Christopher Steele started “sometime in ’16” almost immediately after Steele provided the charges.
The timing is instructive. In previous testimony, Comey admitted that he pushed back against a January 2017 request from President Donald Trump to possibly investigate the origins of the claims made inside the Steele dossier.
Comey’s latest testimony shows that even while he was cautioning Trump against ordering a probe of the dossier claims, Comey’s own FBI was quietly conducting an ongoing investigation into the wild content of that very dossier.
During prepared remarks for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, delivered on June 8, 2017, Comey related how he pushed back against a suggestion from Trump to investigate the dossier claims.
The former FBI chief stated that following a January 6 Oval Office meeting with Intelligence Community leaders, Comey “remained alone with the President Elect to brief him on some personally sensitive aspects of the information assembled during the assessment.”’
It is clear Comey was referring to the dossier since he writes the “salacious and unverified” material was about to be publicly reported by the news media. Four days after that briefing, the dossier was published by BuzzFeed.
In his statement summarizing his conversation with Trump, Comey refers to Russian prostitutes, a key component of the dossier:
He said he had nothing to do with Russia, had not been involved with hookers in Russia, and had always assumed he was being recorded when in Russia.
In a private White House dinner with Trump on January 27, Comey says the topic of the “salacious material” again came up and he reveals that Trump was considering asking the FBI to investigate the origins of the claims. Comey pushed back against that idea.
Comey writes:
During the dinner, the President returned to the salacious material I had briefed him about on January 6, and, as he had done previously, expressed his disgust for the allegations and strongly denied them. He said he was considering ordering me to investigate the alleged incident to prove it didn’t happen. I replied that he should give that careful thought because it might create a narrative that we were investigating him personally, which we weren’t, and because it was very difficult to prove a negative. He said he would think about it and asked me to think about it.
The Steele dossier was reportedly funded by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) via the Perkins Coie law firm.
A House Intelligence Committee memo released last February documented that as FBI director, Comey signed three FISA applications to spy on former Trump adviser Carter Page with the dossier serving as part of the basis for the warrant requests.
Comey signed the applications without telling the FISA court that the dossier was financed by Trump’s primary political opponents, the memo related.
“Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele’s efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior and FBI officials,” the memo states.
The GOP memo also relates that after Steele was terminated months earlier as an FBI source a “source validation report conducted by an independent unit within FBI assessed Steele’s reporting as only minimally corroborated.” Still, Comey saw fit, according to the Republican and Democrat memos, to utilize the dossier in the FISA documents. He also briefed Trump and then-President Barack Obama on the dossier contents.
This proves you can make jokes about Gay’s and stay in Hollywood.
Comedian and A-list actor Kevin Hart announced early Friday morning that he “made the choice to step down” from hosting the 91st Academy Awards amid a backlash over the resurfacing of previous gay jokes and tweets.
“I have made the choice to step down from hosting this year’s Oscar’s….this is because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists,” Kevin Hart tweeted. “I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past.”
I have made the choice to step down from hosting this year’s Oscar’s….this is because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists. I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past.
“I’m sorry that I hurt people.. I am evolving and want to continue to do so. My goal is to bring people together not tear us apart. Much love & appreciation to the Academy,” the Night School star added. “I hope we can meet again.”
I’m sorry that I hurt people.. I am evolving and want to continue to do so. My goal is to bring people together not tear us apart.Much love & appreciation to the Academy.I hope we can meet again.
Hart’s response to criticism over earlier tweets deemed homophobic by some on Thursday further inflamed a backlash to the comedian two days after he was named host of the upcoming Academy Awards.
On Thursday, Hart wrote on Instagram that critics should “stop being negative” after years-old tweets surfaced in which he used gay slurs. In an accompanying video, a shirtless Hart lounging in bed warily said he wasn’t going to “let the craziness frustrate me.”
“I’m almost 40 years old. If you don’t believe that people change, grow, evolve? I don’t know what to tell you,” said Hart, who added, in all-caps: “I love everybody.”
Hart has since deleted some of the anti-gay tweets, mostly dated from 2009-2011. But they had already been screen-captured and been shared online. In 2011, he wrote in a since-deleted tweet: “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.”
Hart’s attitudes about homosexuality were also a well-known part of his stand-up act. In the 2010 special Seriously Funny, he said “one of my biggest fears is my son growing up and being gay.”
“Keep in mind, I’m not homophobic, I have nothing against gay people, do what you want to do, but me, being a heterosexual male, if I can prevent my son from being gay, I will,” Hart said.
GLAAD, the advocacy group for LGBTQ rights, said Thursday that it has reached out to Oscars broadcaster ABC, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts, and Sciences and Hart’s management to “discuss Kevin’s anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and record.”
Comedian and actor Billy Eichner was among those on social media who were disappointed with Hart’s response.
“This is not good. A simple, authentic apology showing any bit of understanding or remorse would have been so simple,” Eichner said. “Like I tweeted a few weeks ago, Hollywood still has a real problem with gay men. On the surface it may not look like it. Underneath, it’s far more complicated.”
This is not good. A simple, authentic apology showing any bit of understanding or remorse would have been so simple. Like I tweeted a few weeks ago, Hollywood still has a real problem with gay men. On the surface it may not look like it. Underneath, it’s far more complicated.
The film academy on Tuesday announced Hart as host to its February ceremony. Representatives for the academy and for ABC didn’t respond to messages Thursday.
