Chris Colfer who plays Kurt in GLEE has already had his image used by an anti-gay group. So why did he agree to take pictures with the anti-gay Republicans when he attended the White House Correspondents Dinner? Piers Morgan (the same CNN correspondent who interviewed Ted “buttsecks repulses me” Nugent) asked him Colfer this very question and Colfer basically said that he thinks his agreeing to take a photo might help sway anti-gay Republicans into reconsidering their stances against homosexuality.
That’s smart thinking that can also work several different ways. Republicans who posed with GLEE’s gayest star can say “Look! I have gay friends! I even watch GLEE!” to help stave off attacks about their anti-gay voting record. But conversely gays can point out the contradiction in such photos, much like Colfer does in his interview: “Yeah sure — you don’t believe in me and my rights, but you want a picture with me. Sure, sure, I’ll take a picture with you.” By using honey rather than vinegar, we can capture such images and then ask these GOPs why they vote against gays if they supposedly like us so much. After all, GLEE’s just about the gayest thing on TV, apart from pro-wrestling.
Matt
Give Chris Colfer a break,
he’s just a dumb kid.
MikeE
@Matt: for once, I don’t think Queerty is actually attacking Chris. The “honey > vinegar” comment sort of demonstrates that.
Jeffree
@Matt: Who’s a “dumb kid”? Uncalled for.
C.C. is doing the “charm offensive” because he’s dàmned if he doesn’t agree to the photo opps & just as dámned if he does. It’s called being a gentleman. You can google the definition, if you need to.
Matthew Rettenmund
He’s not a monster or dumb kid for doing it, but he should think twice about doing it—his own articulation of what’s going on sort of shows that the anti-gay Republicans are getting to have their cake and eat it, too, by voting anti-gay all the way and then posing for a smiley pic with a famous gay person on a famously pro-gay TV show.
I don’t see how posing for pictures with them helps him or other gay people nearly as much as it just sort of makes it seem like their opinions about gay people are no biggie.
Far more powerful would be for him to tell them point-blank, “I don’t pose for pictures with people who I know are hostile toward gay rights.”
And P.S. the douchebag’s name is Piers Morgan, not Morgan Piers.
Jeff J
He seeks publicity in any form.
Cam
I do think it would be nice if the response had been…
“Are you certain you would like a picture with me? I’m gay and you have said repeatedly that we do not deserve equal rights.”
However, Kurt is young so I wouldn’t expect him to really want to upset his bosses and publicists, and he works in Hollywood and was at a Hollywood/Washington party, the amount of “Phony” going on there must have been off the charts.
It is still nice though, to think of a day, when the response to some of those Congressmen would have been similar to if somebody who had just voted to take away women’s rights to votes had asked for a picture with Scarlett Johansen.
Jeffree
When he’s at an event like that, he’s on “company time”, representing his network & his show. A snappy retort may be what he’s thinking of, but there’s no way he’s going to say it without neg. consequences.
Sometimes those acting lessons come in handy !
John
I don’t see how this is any different than posing with the anti-gay Democrats. Either way, fags are still unequal.
alan brickman
He’s a promosexual!!!!
alan brickman
Typical gay who has no problem appearing at Republican Events…promosexual for sure!!!
Mike
Surprised this article cut off the nauseating “Everybody loves Glee. Everybody loves me in Glee.” comment.
Ted B. (Charging Rhino)
I wonder if Chris shared a table with Rep. Aaron Schock? I want video…from under the table.
Cam
@Mike:
Oh no…really?
fagburn
You could have seen this on Fagburn three days ago…
Anthony
I am surprised by some of the comments here. So you think he should decline? The attitude of being rude to someone that is rude to you is SOOO juvenile so those of you saying he doesn’t know any better because he is a “kid” are really the ones that have some maturing to do.
If he were to decline someone that was Republican or anti-gay, how would that make them feel? Well, rejected and insulted just like many of us feel every day. And what does that harbor? Well it causes people to hate those who rejected them even more than we did before the rejection. If he were to deny people photos all he would be doing is perpetuation an “us vs them” battle and making those already harsh feelings worse.
Eventually, we have to start getting along and anything that can be done to show people that gays are not catty or rude like those that do not understand us may believe is a good idea.
While it is good to fight for out rights, upsetting people is not really going to win us any allies. If you think pissing people off is the way to go, I am glad you are just at home writing judgmental comments from your computer and not a notable figure.
Anthony
Also to Matthew Rettenmund. While just taking a picture certainly won’t win any converts immediately, snubbing people and making them feel not worth your time doesn’t seem like a better option. It only supports their ideas that gays are not nice or not worth their support. Why making things harder for ourselves in the future by widening the gap between us? At some point many of these people will come around, why make it take longer?
james
Wrong! not everyone loves Glee and double WRONG! not everyone loves you in Glee. Geesh such a big head at such a young age.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
In this months Advocate, Michelangelo Signorile has an excellent piece about the self loathing Gay repugnaticans…..They basically will stoop to any level to appeal to the repugnatican leadership including:
> Opposition to the Matthew Sheppard Act
> The Hate Crimes Prevention Act
> The James Byrd Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act
> The Employment Non-Discrimination Act
GOProuds “leader” Chris Barron has tweeted:
“The Gay left = the American taliban Hateful angry, and dumb as shit”
With Friends Like This………………
Chris dear, we realize you still have your Gay training wheels on. But you need to learn how to use the googles prior to your next photo ops…………..
Nat
“If he were to decline someone that was Republican or anti-gay, how would that make them feel? Well, rejected and insulted just like many of us feel every day.”
Rejecting taking a photo with someone does not remotely compare to rejecting to extend basic civil and human rights to gays. And if some bigot does feel that emotionally damaged, then good. They deserve it.
“And what does that harbor? Well it causes people to hate those who rejected them even more than we did before the rejection.”
How is that possible? Republicans would criminalize homosexuality if they could get away with it. Short of putting us into camps – which some of them have openly expressed a fondness for anyways – they can’t be even more contemptible of us.
“If he were to deny people photos all he would be doing is perpetuation an “us vs them” battle and making those already harsh feelings worse.”
Newsflash: we are in an “us vs. them” battle. You don’t win over active bigots, you politically and socially marginalize them . Most of them will never come around, a few will pretend to come around, and some will be genuinely remorseful a generation from now, when their views are considered as abhorrent as Strom Thurmond or George Wallace’s were.
These idiots are never going to support our rights. We have long-term demography on our side, and in the meantime, we push our rights with the greatest determination. You don’t do that by smirking in a photo with religious nuts.
Cam
@Anthony: said…
“I am surprised by some of the comments here. So you think he should decline? The attitude of being rude to someone that is rude to you is SOOO juvenile so those of you saying he doesn’t know any better because he is a “kid” are really the ones that have some maturing to do.”
_________________________________________
Is this a joke? So you consider somebody pushing through legislation to take away our right to function as equal citizens, and in some cases even our right to see our dying loved ones as merely “Being Rude”.
So in your head, and I’m sorry to go over this again but it is just so in creadible, so in your head, you have equivicated, a person refusing to take a picture with somebody as being on the same scale as the people that are trying to dehumanize him, and take away his human rights.
My god, the self-hatred and belittling of gays in your post is not to be believed.
As for the HRC folks coming on here freaking out and saying “No, we have to make everybody love us and his taking a picture with them is great!” You guys kissed ass for decades and got us nothing. Get Equal and the other grass roots folks pissed off a bunch of people, including you, and got us a DADT repeal, DOMA not being defended, and a 15% jump in the nationwide support of marriage, just by continually reminding people that we existed.
Nat
@Cam:
Please. Sidling up with Republican bigots doesn’t accomplish much, but GetEqual’s juvenile tactics accomplished nothing either. A few demonstrations of a few people shouting down Democrats did not produce DADT’s repeal. That’s ludicrous. And the DOMA shift is purely tactical: after the Democrats lost the House, the Obama administration had nothing left to lose in not supporting DOMA.
Cam
@Nat: said..
“@Cam:
Please. Sidling up with Republican bigots doesn’t accomplish much, but GetEqual’s juvenile tactics accomplished nothing either. A few demonstrations of a few people shouting down Democrats did not produce DADT’s repeal.”
_____________________________-
I just love the fact that, Get Equal and those “Juvinille Tactics” were the only thing that really had changed and yet supposedly they existed in a vacuum and changed nothing. Really? Funny how Both the White house and Barney Frank said that a DADT repeal was NOT coming, The White House had even ordered Rep Alcey Hasting’s to pull back a gay bill, AND Frank hadn’t signed on as a co-sponsor.
Yet a few calls for boycotts of the Fundraisers sponsored by Barney Frank, a sit in or two in Pelosi’s office, and dropping donations to the DNC, combined with a lower voter turnout and suddenly we got fast movement where before there was nothing.
HRC, not only attacked people filing lawsuits that got us our rights in multiple states, but the head sent out letters basically telling us to shut up. They were all set to give the White House cover, and the grass roots, the blogs, etc… took that ability away from them. We got movement in the last two years when we had been told by the White house we would get nothing and insulted by Barney Frank for even asking.
The fact that you used the key word “Juvinille” shows me that you read the HRC memo on the subject and are parroting the good party line from them.
Jake
@Mike
It was clear that when he said “everyone loves me on Glee”, he was referring to the irony of the anti-gay rights right-wingers at the WHCD who were fawning over him.
Right Wingers Are Socioptahs (John From England)
@Nat:
So you are a republican? You think that it is good that the democrats have no power hence the comment about the fact that it had NOTHING to do with them but by the fact they lost the house?
Is this Queerty any different from before? No, cause yu still have the same editor!
zach
hes showing them that although hes gay he can still be a nice person and maybe that will help us
maybe next time they vote on gay marriage they will look back and chris and say he was nice to me maybe he deserves a chance
Its along shot but atleast hes trying something different we’ve been doing the same shit for a long time and where are we we’re close but not nearly close enough
Even Steven
It’s funny watching you people snipe at each other. Please keep it up for my personal entertainment.
Thank you
Cam
@zach: said…
“hes showing them that although hes gay he can still be a nice person and maybe that will help us
maybe next time they vote on gay marriage they will look back and chris and say he was nice to me maybe he deserves a chance”
____________________________________
Hi Zach, I wish I was as confident as you, but to take it back a ways. Huge numbers of the people that were arguing against rights for blacks in the south had been raised by black women as their nannies, their maids, their cooks.
These people were with the same families for ages and sometimes would even raise two generations of the families children. Yet it didn’t stop those same children from hating “OTHER” blacks. This is like the people that have gay hairdressers that they tell everything to, but still vote against gays because of “Their Faith”.
Cam
@Even Steven: said..
“It’s funny watching you people snipe at each other. Please keep it up for my personal entertainment.
Thank you”
_______________________________________
Sure Steven, and you just keep pretending to yourself that the fact you want to spend your time hanging out on a gay blog doesn’t let us all know that you are really a closet case desperate for any chance to scan anything on the internet with the word “Gay” on it. Deal, because thats funny to us.
Chris
Whatever Colfer tells himself about the interaction will come out as silence. I was appalled that they took it as him somehow “winning”. Bigots play the “gay friend” card all the time, and being a silent play-along will not change their attitude.
In the end, both of them probably walked away thinking they were the winners.
sam
That anyone can watch that interview and come out wanting to criticize Colfer is laughable.
The kid is smart, he is kind and he’s obviously non confrontational. He has a career and he has a sense of humour. Leave him be. He can’t start hysterically protesting, because let’s face it, that won’t get us anywhere.
And to the jerks criticizing him for the”everybody loves Glee” remark…. way to take it out of context and far more seriously than intended. Sheesh.
Ben J
I’d prefer Glee to clean up his character arguably the most obnoxious unlikable gay ever on tv. ANd while you are at Mr Murphy, please give the bad gay stereotypes a rest…
Aaron in Honolulu
It’s just a fucking photo Queerty. It’s not like he’s joining the GOP. Get over it.
Jeff R
Iconic stars Marlene Dietrich and Hedy Lamarr, amongst others, refused lucrative offers to work in Nazi Germany during Hitler’s reign of terror. According to the logic of some of the naive (being nice) comments hereinabove, I can only assume that they were being rude divas. (MLK, Harvey Milk, et.al. were presumably impolite and obnoxious, too, no?) Other German artists, like Leni Riefenstahl, stayed on in the Reich and enjoyed great success. They socialized with Hitler and also posed for pictures with him. I guess that their acquiescence, politeness and silence – their honey rather than vinegar approach – did not aid and abet the Nazis’ crimes against humanity. Why were some of them deemed collaborators?!? Obviously to some being polite is more important than taking a stand for justice or at the very least refusing to collaborate/give comfort (by posing) to those who perpetrate injustice – like Michelle Bachmann(sp?).
Colfer is an adult and free to make his own choices – I disagree with both his logic and his decision but it’s his choice. A simple: “I’m a gay man. You support discrimination against me so why would you want a picture with me? Thanks but no thanks” would have sufficed. He’s undermined all of the work that he’s done against bullying. However, he’s successful, famous, presumably earning good money and to a certain extent now more immune from the homophobia that his photo partner promotes and/or countenances than most of the LGBT community and apparently the adulation and applause is more important to him, whether or not the fan is a homophobe. Too bad. (At least Jodie is friends with/has worked with Mel and Roman.) I haven’t noticed Michelle changing her position since the photo op. Oh well. I’m sure that she will come around sooner or later. Perhaps the photo op will eventually prompt Michelle to lead the campaign against the homophobic anti-marriage crusade currently going on in Minn. Then Colfer can sing at a fund raising rally for marriage equality and pose again with his newfound convert, this time as equals. Until then, hopefully the next homophobe that he poses with will have a more rapid change of heart. BTW, do any of the “naive” posters recall Elizabeth Taylor taking Ronnie to task for his “silence” on AIDS back in the day? I guess Dame Elizabeth was impolite, impertinent, too aggressive, etc., too. Best, Jeff R
Jeffree
Note that the White House Correspondents’ dinner is NOT a GOP event. It’s for the press.
Brickman & others who belive Colfers’ attendance was a political or partisan statement are confused.
Colfer wasn’t there as a private citizen per se, he’s doing media on behalf of his network / show.
m2m
all of the Glee stars work for Rupert Murdoch, who owns News Corp, which employs Roger Ailes, who runs Fox News, which has Michelle Bachmann on as a commentator. From what I’ve seen with mostly liberal stars who’ve appeared on Fox shows, it’s mostly a contractual obligation to pose w/ GOP politicos to please Papa Murdoch who is nothing more than a modern day William Randolph Hearst (read the bio “The Chief” if you want more info on Hearst and the comparisons are frightening)
alan brickman
He’s just moving it forward…good for him…
Shannon1981
I get the feeling the decision to do this wasn’t entirely his. Remember, with celebs, especially of the type who can potentially make waves in this culture war, PR teams often have a lot of say.
Anthony
@Nat:You seem to be the king of taking things out of context and false logical connections. If you view all Republican and anti-gay politicians as “idiots” well then of course you are not going to be able to win anyone over. And by you own logic they are “never going to support our rights.” So why be a jerk? If that isn’t going to accomplish anything, why not chose to be a nice person?
Anthony
As an example: Those “idiot” Republicans do have changes of heart. You could not be more wrong.
http://www.towleroad.com/2011/05/iowa.html
Guadalupe
Hi, You don’t think about of words of Chris is sarcastic. He not a dumb is very intelligent to say in a picture. YOU DONT BELIEVE IN ME OR MY RIGHTS but take a picture sure. All the politians are straight or gay? We dont know. Chris only have a 21 years old and us. So Chris is an example. Dont says words insane.