My Everything 23,397 Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 Who died and made Ellen DeGeneres the gay pope? In December, comedian Kevin Hart’s appointment to host the 2019 Academy Awards drew renewed attention to his hateful and damaging comments about gay people. The academy asked Hart to apologize: he refused and bowed out just days after the initial announcement. Many LGBTQ people cheered the withdrawal as the right move. But now, in an interview that aired Friday on her daytime talk show, DeGeneres has absolved Hart of his ugly history. DeGeneres, who is gay, shared during the interview that she’d even interceded to ask the Oscars organizers to reconsider Hart as host. Apparently, they’re amenable: The ultimatum perhaps wasn’t so much of an ultimatum after all, and in the end, “We want him to host,†DeGeneres says she was told. “Whatever we can do we would be thrilled.†Et tu, Ellen? As strange as this spectacle may seem, it’s actually in keeping with DeGeneres’s brand of nice. It’s a value she has sought to spread through the world, long signing off her show by telling her audience, “Be kind to one another.†Kindness means giving second chances, and giving second chances apparently means allowing Hart, who in 2011 tweeted that if his son played with a dollhouse he would “break it over his head & say n my voice ‘stop that’s gay,’ †to host the most prestigious event in American cinema — one that’s also known as the Gay Super Bowl for its celebration of fashion and drama. On the set of DeGeneres’s show, anyone who thinks otherwise is simply a hater. “Whatever is going on in the Internet, don’t pay attention to them,†DeGeneres said. “That’s a small group of people being very, very loud. We are a huge group of people who love you and want to see you host the Oscars.†Comedian Kevin Hart stepped down as the 2019 Oscars host after widespread criticism of his past homophobic tweets. (Drea Cornejo /The Washington Post) But that loud Internet crowd, which appears much larger than DeGeneres has allowed for, has it right. Niceness doesn’t require people to be pushovers. And kindness doesn’t mean forgiving people who’ve done bad things without being sure they understand what happened and are committed to making things right. DeGeneres’s unilateral dispensation to Hart on behalf of the LGBTQ community (and her kneecapping of Hart’s critics) truncates that process. That’s bad for all the LGBT people she claims to represent. And it’s bad for Hart, who gets to skip over the part of the process where he becomes a better, more empathetic person. Hart made a halfhearted apology when he announced he was stepping down as host. But he hasn’t made any clear amends to LGBTQ people, and he certainly doesn’t seem to have atoned for his words. How can he, so long as he views the criticism of his past words as “slander on my name� More important, even if Hart had more fully repented, his sins are not DeGeneres’s to forgive. She faced professional danger and personal scorn in her early and courageous trailblazing, but she’s at a place in her life and career where she’s largely protected from the kind of violence Hart described. Hart’s remarks were directed to queer people of color, who are generally much more vulnerable than their white counterparts. A 2017 poll from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard showed that LGBTQ people of color are twice as likely to have experienced discrimination in hiring and police interactions as white LGBTQ people, and that they are six times as likely to not call the police in a threatening situation so as to avoid reprisal. Really, no single person is qualified to offer the forgiveness of all of queer America. But a white cisgender woman who is widely beloved and obscenely wealthy to boot is particularly ill-suited to try to muster such papal authority. For DeGeneres to think herself licensed to dispense this pass to Hart suggests that the only real indulgence here is her own. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/04/who-died-made-ellen-gay-pope/?__twitter_impression=true&noredirect=on&utm_term=.a498e15e48be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobalt 2,914 Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 This title lmao Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ego ista 1,344 Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 The gay pope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deobizone 7,780 Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 this is my first time hearing Gay Super Bowl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abra 40,910 Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 I have no issue with her thinking he could lead the Oscars. But at the same time she obviously can't claim to represent anyone but herself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJJD 1,975 Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 i don’t agree with ellen but it’s funny that this article is written by a white cis man lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nootnoot 2,263 Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 I have no issue with her thinking he could lead the Oscars. But at the same time she obviously can't claim to represent anyone but herself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obscurities 463 Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 The straight housewives who watch her show would probably think she's "the gay pope" tbh... I'm all for second chances if the change is there and lessons are learned, but all of this is just not correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormie 688 Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 I agree with the fact that he made a stupid comment, he admitted to making a stupid comment [at a time where this was viewed as funny in American comedy, though I never found that kind of thing funny from the start] He Acknowledged it, He owned that he was a douche for saying it, but was that enough? noooooooo, of course not, the net crazies had to rip his dream away from him like they never said something cruel, horrible or unkind when they were younger [or last week] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siobhan Halo 2,769 Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 Title is accurate. Ellen can claim to speak for her viewers, white American middle class women, but, "We are a huge group of people who love you and want to see you host the Oscars.†is bullshit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobSIDES 1,175 Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 i don’t agree with ellen but it’s funny that this article is written by a white cis man lol Is it? I'm a white cis man just as Ellen is a white cis female. We are both part of the LGBT community-but obviously being white and cis gendered makes our opinions on subjects such as these laughable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJJD 1,975 Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 Is it? I'm a white cis man just as Ellen is a white cis female. We are both part of the LGBT community-but obviously being white and cis gendered makes our opinions on subjects such as these laughable? that’s not it, it’s just like the author is trying to come for ellen for speaking for others while doing the same thing himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delirium 4,237 Posted January 5, 2019 Share Posted January 5, 2019 I can't with current media or the vocal minority-from cherry picking issues from years ago to acting like they care about something to terrible prioritizing to people will literally being up someone's arse and singing their praises until they have a difference of opinion and suddenly the person is canceled. They'll complain about Ellen "speaking for gays" (which she has done many times before and people accepted it) but now that some people disagree, they act brand new knowing full well that if she had the opposite opinion, they'd be screaming, yeeees. The same people didn't complain about a random person on twitter speaking for the community. Not to mention, Hollywood has been a cesspool of abuse, sexual assault, rape, and paedophilia for decades, people should be boycotting half of Hollywood for what they've allowed to transpire by now but somehow those crimes get a pass and we'll still tune in to watch the Oscars but a joke is where we'll draw the line and not watch.... Either way, the community isn't a hive; some people will love to see him, some won't. The ones who want to see him will voice their opinions for those in agreement, as will the people who don't want to see him-one doesn't negate the other. I don't know why we make opinions into something complicated. If you don't fit the bill, stop reaching for it, it's not for you. If I think he's trash then my opinion pertains to like-minded individuals, it has no bearing on those who love him. As such, those who love him don't have to check me because what I think has nothing to do with them, I'm in my lane with others who share my thoughts. If you don't share someone's sentiments then you obviously aren't included in the group of people that the person is talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solana 1,974 Posted January 5, 2019 Share Posted January 5, 2019 Ellen can sit her ass down Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JunChanHun 161 Posted January 5, 2019 Share Posted January 5, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocumentaLy 6,033 Posted January 5, 2019 Share Posted January 5, 2019 this is my first time hearing Gay Super Bowl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiseLikeACrowTit 862 Posted January 6, 2019 Share Posted January 6, 2019 It begins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeeYaWithYou 4,415 Posted January 6, 2019 Share Posted January 6, 2019 i don’t agree with ellen but it’s funny that this article is written by a white cis man lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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