Sexy do-gooder Brad Pitt has been outspoken on a variety of progressive causes, from Darfur to the environment, but it looks like he and his mom part ways on the issue of gay rights.
On Tuesday Jane Pitt, or someone with her name, penned an anti-gay editorial in the Springfield News Leader. (Brad grew up in the Missouri town and Jane still lives there.)
Under “Reader’s Letters,” Mrs. Pitt responded to a piece written by another reader who claimed Christians who disagree with Mitt Romney and Mormonism should have their views respected.
In her op-ed Pitt wrote:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
I have given much thought to Richard Stoecker’s letter (“Vote for Mormon against beliefs,” June 15). I am also a Christian and differ with the Mormon religion.
But I think any Christian should spend much time in prayer before refusing to vote for a family man with high morals, business experience, who is against abortion, and shares Christian conviction concerning homosexuality just because he is a Mormon.
Any Christian who does not vote or writes in a name is casting a vote for Romney’s opponent, Barack Hussein Obama—a man who sat in Jeremiah Wright’s church for years, did not hold a public ceremony to mark the National Day of Prayer, and is a liberal who supports the killing of unborn babies and same-sex marriage.
I hope all Christians give their vote prayerful consideration because voting is a sacred privilege and a serious responsibility.
Wow, don’t hold back, Jane!
Readers of gossip rags shouldn’t be surprised by Mama Pitt’s bigoted ways. The National Enquirer reported last year that Jane was fed up with goddess-in-law Angelina Jolie allowing Shiloh to dress like a tomboy.
Me
Age and ignorance will do that to ya.
Randall
She’s obviously a MORON to begin with, not to mention a bigot and religious crazy. Oh yeah, add old fool and senile to the list.
Cam
No wonder he got out of that town.
Chuck
I hate every article written by Dan Avery so far. Go find real news instead of this drivel.
nineinchnail
@Randall: But she doesneed to be thanked for giving birth to such a stud! FWIW Romney doesnt stand a chance against Obama, IMO.
MPNM
http://www.news-leader.com/article/20120703/OPINIONS03/307030043/Election-Casting-ballot-deserves-prayerful-consideration?nclick_check=1
They are reporting at the bottom of the page that this is NOT Brad Pitt’s mother. Other sites are starting to state this as well.
Richard Ford
Just another example of how so many people manage to make organized religion a paramount factor in arriving at decisions about their civil government.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just elect a president who was an atheist, someone who could lead government exclusively from a perspective of intellect and reason, unencumbered by scriptural dogmas and bonds of allegiance to his/her or anybody else’s churches or religious groups or ideologies?
If you answered “Yes, it would be nice, but it’ll never happen, you’re right on both counts.
If you answered, “No, it would not be nice,” then you’re wrong, and beyond that, you’re part of the problem.
We can’t condemn this woman for her obsessions and prejudices, then turn around and replace them with our own.
mc
“Editor’s note: The writer of this letter is not the mother of Brad and Doug Pitt.”
And in response to a comment Linda Leicht wrote: “The letter writer is NOT the mother of Brad and Doug Pitt. I spoke with her myself and she is another Jane Pitt. I’m sorry for the confusion. Linda Leicht, opinion page editor”
Will a correction be made on this story?
Donald E. Hull
It’s a shame anyone would choose to use Brad Pitts mothers name (even if it was their own name…hint: just the first initial could have been used) coming from the same city. The editor should have known better and should, at least, print a clarification. HOWEVER, that being said, even if it had been the ‘real’ mother writing the letter, she’s entitled to her own opinion, no matter what. Anyone who freely chooses to air their intolerance and bigotry, honestly, does more harm to themselves than to the people they are attempting to demean…and it doesn’t cost them a cent.
dan
@Chuck:
I am very inclined to agree with you.
Mcflyer54
@Chuck:
I don’t know but since queerty is a free blog, and not on any required reading list, noboby is forced to read “drivel”. This would seem especially true when the reader could quite easily avoid anything with Dan Avery’s byline. Unless of course the main purpose for reading the article was to complain about the writer’s “drivel”.
DarthEVaderCheney
@Chuck:
Ya don’ like the news?? Don’t read it, Sweetcheeks!
Danny
I wonder if the lady who hates gay will refuse to use all the medicines and technology that gays have invented through the years, or is she just a big old massive Christian hypocrite (which means she isn’t really Christian at all since Jesus condemned hypocrites).
robert
Anybody can sign the name Jane Pitt. I doubt its the same one.
Richard Ford
Whoever reported this story prematurely should have verified the question of authorship before breaking it.
Now we’re left with the distraction of determining whether what was said was said by an actor’s mother or someone else, rather than concerning ourselves primarily with the content of the statements themselves, whatever the source.
mc
@robert: I’ll write it again. On the website it states: “The letter writer is NOT the mother of Brad and Doug Pitt. I spoke with her myself and she is another Jane Pitt. I’m sorry for the confusion. Linda Leicht, opinion page editor”
Booker
It seems that it’s not Brad’s mother; aside from that, the message from Queerty in my email kinda led me to believe that the opinions expressed by whomever ‘this’ Jane Pitt is would be a lot more extreme and crazy-sounding. I don’t agree with the views in the letter, but they were pretty rationally expressed and ordinary.
Alexi3
“Voting is a sacred duty”? Now I wonder where, whoever wrote this, found that in the Bible. I agree it is a civic duty, but a sacred one, come on, where do these people come up with this stuff? I am happy to hear that there is actually some debate going on about whether “Christians” should be voting for a Mormon. I’ve written about this before and I have been amazed at the lack of conversation I’d been hearing about this issue. Fundamentalists do not consider Mormons to be Christians and have had to jump through many theological hoops to support a man who they believe belongs to a cult and who under normal circumstances would be condemning. It seems that for many of them, their hate for the President and fear of cultural changes, has been trumping their doctrinal beliefs. For anyone with a fundamentalist background, or who has studied the movement, nothing shows more clearly the hypocracy of the Religious Right than this willingness on the part of many evangelicals to overlook Romney’s belonging to what they have always considered a cult. Should this prove to become a real schisim within the Religious Right, it is very bad news for the Republicans in November.
Matt
Who cares about Brad Pitt or his mom?
LandStander
This letter is NOT FROM BRAD PITTS MOTHER!!!!!!! This is a different woman, please correct your story!
Jimmy
The original source confirmed the letter’s origin with two sources at the newspaper. They issued the retraction two hours after our story went online. My guess is she called and complained.
Colin
@nineinchnail: You obviously haven’t been paying attention. Romney will be a shoo-in in November. It’s not even a question.
Aquarelle
@Colin: +1. Romney is so much better looking than Obama. I hope he wins.
Colin
@Aquarelle: LOL. You just don’t stop.
Aquarelle
@Colin: It’s true, we haven’t had a hot president basically since Kennedy. Romney’s old which is kinda gross but at least he was hot when he was young.
Colin
@Aquarelle: And you don’t find Obama attractive? Have you even Googled pictures of him when he was younger?
Kim
@Chuck: Thanks for heads up on this guy posting story about celebs mom and calling her bigot based on BS story from NE.
Victor
Anyone who would vote for R-money is just evil (or a complete idiot – likely both). A vote for any repugnican is a vote for corporate takeover of the country. But then, Hitler didn’t elect himself. There are a lot of evil people in the world so R-money could have a chance. It took WWII to make people see how evil Hitler was and it still didn’t convince everyone. That’s why repugnicans merged with the religious wrong. They don’t want people who think. They want very gullible people who just shut up and do as their told. There’s no other reason anyone would vote for this a**hole.
Colin
@Victor: Oh shut up.
LandStander
OMG you still have not fixed this post Dan Avery??
THIS STORY IS NOT TRUE
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THIS IS NOT BRAD PITTS MOM
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Queerty writers are just lazy >.>
Callum
Quote: David Stoeffler News-Leader · Top Commenter · Works at Gannett
To clear up earlier confusion, the News-Leader has verified the letter writer is the mother of actor Brad Pitt and local businessman Doug Pitt.
Reply · Like · Follow Post · 11 minutes ago
Aquarelle
@Colin: Nope. Obama’s not attractive. Now, do you know who *should* be president? Paul Ryan. He is H O T !
Colin
@Aquarelle: Swoon! AND he’s a Republican?! I wanna have his babies.
Aquarelle
@Colin: Aaron Schock isn’t bad either. He would also make a delicious-looking president.
Colin
@Aquarelle: Cute but reminds me too much of Neil Patrick Harris, and I’m tired of seeing that queen everywhere.
Jimmy
@LandStander: Have you gone back and looked at the website recently? It’s been confirmed that it’s Brad Pitt’s mom.
LadyL
Well, I don’t know what’s becoming more interesting here– that an actor many of us admire could have a mom that’s so socially regressive or that some of us are determined not to believe it could be her saying these things.
I wouldn’t be shocked if she did write it, only because I’ve read interviews (around the time of his participation in Dustin Lance Black’s play, “8”) where BP has alluded to a certain narrowness of outlook where he hails from and disagreements he’s had with “some people” about things like gay marriage.
James M. Martin
I hope you are not saying you were surprised to learn that Brad has a homophobic mother. This is the same Brad who told the media he and Angelina would not get married until all people could marry. At least he waited until DADT got repealed, almost if not right up to the President’s pro-same sex marriage speech. But homophobic mothers are going to be around for at last another generation or two, partly because of religion, and partly because people are hardwired to believe heterosexuality is the only normal sexual orientation since it is the only one that procreates. These same people refuse to believe experts who say children of same-sex partners grow up to be just as well adjusted (and usually heterosexual) as those brought up by Pop and Mom. In such cases, religion and primitive tendencies trump science and reason.
bill(Guillermo3)
@Randall: Oh,RANDALL
(that’s joke name,right?),Open up…….Tell us how you REALLY
FEEL !!!!
Halston
I’m pretty sure some of you have parents who have similar views. I love my mother very much, but her views of my sexuality do not differ to far off from the alleged Mrs. Pitt’s views (although she would never vote from Romney). Does that mean I lover her less? No. And, amongst the people that I know that are gay some of them have very open minded parents, some have parents with lukewarm feelings about their kids sexuality, and some parents our outright against it. Do they love their parents any less or any more? No. If this is Brad Pitt’s mom I think it a little unfair to berate a woman who has a life apart from her famous son who still lives (for a lack of a better term) in small town America and feels the way that many of our own parents do. Do I agree with her? No. But just because she has a liberal left leaning son does not mean she is going to have the same views as he does and the same goes for all parents of gay kids.
Jay
I agree Colin I am not even a Republican or Conservative and yet it’s obvious we’ll have a mormon President and not a mixed race dem again.
Mrs. Patrick Campbell
Tiny-meat Brad Pitt is a closeted homosexual! His marriage of convenience to Angelina is one of the most successful beardings in Hollywood history!
Belize
@Colin: “@Victor: Oh shut up.”
LOL. Considering your previous drivel and your sad voting rationale, I’m sure that it took you a lot of effort to come up with such an intelligent sounding response. 🙂 That is all.
Belize
@Colin: @nineinchnail: “You obviously haven’t been paying attention. Romney will be a shoo-in in November. It’s not even a question.”
And that only proves that the US is filled with poorly educated imbeciles. Congratulations. 🙂
Belize
@Colin, @Aquarelle – LOL. It must be hard having two usernames. But I’m sure the paycheck you are getting to “parrot” in behalf of Romney makes it a little easier.
Nice try though. I almost confirmed that two idiots are actually trolling on this page. 🙂
Belize
@Halston: “But just because she has a liberal left leaning son does not mean she is going to have the same views as he does and the same goes for all parents of gay kids.”
Sorry to burst your bubble. But a hick town life is no excuse for being an idiot. And if an idiot wants to criticize our lifestyle, we have every right to criticize that idiot.
B
Re No. 6 : the link in that comment now claims that the letter was in fact written by Brad Pitt’s mother, and mentions earlier confusion. Probably the text was changed after No 6. was posted.
I don’t think it really matters as to who wrote it (as long as someone doesn’t blame the wrong person), but one should try to be factually accurate.
Colin
@Jay: Exactly. I don’t know why gays are betting on Obama. We tried the black (half-black) thing and it just didn’t work for America. Also Obama’s support for gay marriage and his health care system are pretty much the nails in that coffin.
bill(Guillermo3)
I think this particular moronic run of comments ,to use
the idiot Colin’s(Colin,are you an undercover plant from
the FRC to reinforce cartoon gay stereotypes?)words the
nail in the coffin of these posts for me}either as reader
or commenter.
If there is a Gay Anti-Defamation League,it should cite
& censure most of the folks who’ve commented so far.
Aquarelle
Who cares if she’s a bigot, she produced Brad Pitt, she gets a lifetime pass.
Richard Ford
Incisive, enlightening, uplifting. Who can deny that each and every one of the preceding comments about this momentous story has at least one of these traits?
True
And that only proves that the US is filled with poorly educated imbeciles. Congratulations. 🙂
Belize-Those same people elected Obama and voted for Bush twice! 😉
Colin
@True: Who a person votes for has NO reflection on their education levels. FACT.
Drew
Brad Pitt is a shitty actor, not handsome at all (google pics of him WITHOUT makeup on), and a raging alcoholic/drug addict.
Richard Ford
The Advocate website reported on this story July 7. It concluded its article with the following statement: “The editors [of the Springfield News-Leader] later confirmed that Jane Pitt, Brad’s mother, definitely wrote the letter.”
There’s just not much people can agree on any more in the good ole US of A, is there?
Richard Ford
In #54 I should have said “July 5.” Another demonstration of the fact that the truth’s a slippery commodity.
MikeE
@MPNM: dude, check the source:
“Editor’s note: To clear up earlier confusion, the News-Leader has verified the letter writer is the mother of actor Brad Pitt and local businessman Doug Pitt.”
notice: “has verified the letter writer IS the mother of actor Bard Pitt.”
so, no, it’s not perfectly clear that this is “not Brad Pitt’s mother”, when the actual newspaper reports that it has verified the source as being Brad Pitt’s mother.
PARKAVMAN
My parents don’t have all the same political views as I do, but they love me. I’d be more worried about what she thought of Angelina and all those kids.
Halston
@Belize: Didn’t say she did or didn’t have a right. What I am saying is that some of you need to point the fingers at yourselves and your own family members instead other people and there family. Maybe you will understand if I put it the way you put it…think about the idiots in your own family first before you criticize the idiots in others.
Halston
@Belize: After reading all of Colin’s comments we first need to talk about the idiots on here.
Halston
Meant “…their family” in post #58.
bill(Guillermo3)
@MikeE: @MikeE:
Talk about confusion,MikeE!!!:Brad,or Bard?
JT
@Donald E. Hull: So if someone named J. Taylor is playing music in Breckenridge, Colorado, will you assume that James Taylor is playing there that night?
LadyL
@Belize: I hear what you’re saying, but I think Halston has a point. I agree there is a certain idiocy in dogmatic rigidity, but he’s right–this is mostly a generational issue. I’ve never doubted my mother’s love. But she is 76 this year, and pushed to be honest would admit that, though she’s black and Catholic, her views are not too far from Jane Pitt’s about gay marriage. (Though she voted for Obama and will proudly do so again)
This is true even though she knows her daughter is a lesbian. She grew up in a certain era, in a certain culture, that instilled in her certain “truths” that as she ages she clings more and more to, surrounded as she is by a world changing too fast for her.
We’ve had our arguments–some of them serious and painful–but she’s my mom, and I love her. I could drop-kick her off the roof of the Sears Tower some days, but I love her. 🙂
TxHeat
@Halston & Belize: I disowned my birth Mother after a couple years of trying do what you do. I finally realized my Mom was brain washed by a Southern Baptist preacher and gave up her role as a loving parent. I hope one day her mental illness can be cured, but until that day or until she admits she needs help I will not have any contact with her or allow my children to either. I am lucky as my children and myself have my partner’s loving parents as our own. I have found great joy in getting the hatred out of my life, a parent loves you or they don’t and they will not change if you accept being there second class bastard child.
Dan Avery
As I’m sure most of you have learned, the letter was indeed written by Brad Pitt’s mom, Jane.
joe
@Richard Ford: I’m not sure how you think that atheists would not have their own dogma. They spent most of the 20th century believing in Karl Marx. Now it looks like atheists are going to spend the 21st century pushing global warming and polar bears down our throats.