TheRoot.com's Swerdlick: Robertson Crossed
Homophobia Line
Monday, 23 Dec 2013 06:17 PM
By Bill Hoffmann
Phil Robertson had every right to say a
gay lifestyle is against his religious beliefs in an interview with GQ magazine
— but then his statements turned homophobic, says David Swerdlick, a writer
with the news and opinion website TheRoot.com.
"If he had simply come out and said .
. . he didn't condone gay marriage or he had an issue with the gay orientation,
that would have been one thing. That would have been just a simple statement of
'this is where I stand on the issue,''' Swerdlick told "The Steve Malzberg
Show" on Newsmax TV.
"[But] I read that GQ interview as
him kind of going out of his way to really rip gays and lesbians and comparing
them to terrorists, idolaters, drunkards. To me that was gratuitous."
In his interview with GQ, Robertson's
anti-gay comments included a paraphrasing of biblical passages on homosexual
behavior.
"[You] start with homosexual behavior
and just morph out from there: bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and
that woman, and that woman and those men," Robertson told GQ.
"It seems like, to me, a woman would
be more desirable [than a man] . . . That's just me," Robertson said.
"She's got more to offer," he
continued. "I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I'm saying? But hey,
sin: it's not logical, my man; it's just not logical."
Swerdlick said that while Roberston
"has every right to say it, he has a constitutional right . . . but, you know, people have a right to take
offense at that. It's homophobic . . .
"Just because you're famous and
because you're folksy and have a big, mountain-man beard doesn't mean people
aren't going to hold you accountable for things that you say," Swerdlick
said.
TheRoot
William
Julius Wilson is a contributor for The Root, and a
director at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (think
tank).
Note: Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Center on
Budget and Policy Priorities (think tank).
George Soros
is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations,
and the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open
Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Center on
Budget and Policy Priorities (think tank), the Brookings
Institution (think tank), the Aspen Institute (think
tank), the NAACP Legal Defense &
Educational Fund, and ProPublica,
Henry
Louis Gates Jr. was an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), is a trustee at the Aspen
Institute (think tank), a director at the NAACP Legal
Defense & Educational Fund, a director at ProPublica,
the editor-in-chief & founder for The Root, and a
professor at Harvard University.
Harvard Professor Jailed; Officer
Is Accused of Bias
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
Published: July 20, 2009
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