GLAAD (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) is not done with comedian Kevin Hart. The ghey rights organization said Hart “missed an opportunity” by stepping down as host of the 2019 Academy Awards.
Hart was forced to step down after GLAAD uncovered old “homophobic” tweets on his Twitter feed.
GLAAD reached out to the Oscars broadcaster ABC Network and the Academy to discuss Hart being named to host the Oscars in February.
GLAAD said it wanted to remind ABC and the Academy of Hart’s “anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and record.”
Hart ultimately apologized on Twitter.com on Thursday, but not after someone twisted his arm.
“Kevin Hart shouldn’t have stepped down; he should have stepped up,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement to The Blast.
She added, “Hart’s apology to LGBTQ people is an important step forward, but he missed a real opportunity to use his platform and the Oscars stage to build unity and awareness. We would still welcome that conversation with him.”
But she isn’t likely to get a call from Hart, who says he already addressed his old tweets several times in the past.
Hart wrote on Instagram that critics on social media should “stop being negative” about his old tweets.
“I’m almost 40 years old. If you don’t believe that people change, grow, evolve? I don’t know what to tell you. I love everybody.”
Meanwhile, Hart’s supporters, including old skool rapper Snoop Dogg, rushed to his defense on Friday.
The 47-year-old “Doggystyle” rapper shared a video on social media, saying the Academy can “suck d-ck or die trying.”
Snoop said Hart shouldn’t worry because the Oscars “ain’t our kinda sh-t anyways.”
Well-known Twitter activist Tariq Nasheed also defended Hart on his Instagram page. He posted a B&W image of the F.B.I.’s first director J. Edgar Hoover, who was accused of using the government agency to harass well-known Black public figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tariq wrote:
“Since Kevin Hart was forced to apologize to the LGBT community for his jokes, has the LGBT community apologized for their long history of anti-Black racism, and for their members like J Edgar Hoover, who waged war against Black society & helped destroy almost every Black leader? #askingforafriend”.
Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images
