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Bret Easton Ellis Persona Non Grata at GLAAD Awards
Bret Easton Ellis Persona Non Grata at GLAAD Awards
After Bret Easton Ellis composed several highly offensive tweets, the novelist and screenwriter was not welcomed with open arms to GLAAD's media awards event in Los Angeles.
On Twitter, Ellis compared watching Glee to "stepping in a puddle of HIV," said actor Matt Bomer was not fit to play the male lead in Fifty Shades of Grey because he's gay, and agreed with comments by Paris Hilton that men who use Grindr have AIDS. After discovering Ellis planned to attend the Saturday media awards as someone's guest, GLAAD requested a meeting with the writer. The planned guest decided to not bring Ellis and the Less Than Zero author never responded to the meeting request.
"GLAAD is supposedly "furious" about my tweets," Easton tweeted Friday. "And I'm guessing not the ones concerning my boyfriend or how sexy I think Adam Driver is..." Later he tweeted, "Bill Clinton signed Doma [Defense of Marriage Act] and Don't Ask Don't Tell and cheated on Hillary. I dissed Glee and Matt Bomer as Christian Grey. GLAAD: RIGHT ON!"
GLAAD's Vice President of Communications Rich Ferraro released the following statement: "Given the crude remarks he's made about the gay community and people living with HIV/AIDS, this publicity stunt is not surprising. GLAAD spoke with the guest who was planning to bring Bret about his recent remarks, which the gay community responded negatively to. We also asked for a time to sit down with Bret and planned to invite other leaders in the gay community as well as the HIV/AIDS community. The guest replaced Bret at the fundraiser and there has been no response from Bret regarding the meeting. It is a shame and disservice to the gay community that Bret appears to be trying to overshadow the high-profile allies, including Betty White, Chris Evans, Kelly Rowland and so many others who used the event to show their support for LGBT people and advocated for equality in the Boy Scouts, marriage and across the country."
The former president received the Advocate for Change award at the ceremony but was heckled for signing the Defense of Marriage Act.
