Friday's dust-up over Tracy Morgan's
anti-gay jokes, and subsequent apology, isn't quite over yet.
The 30 Rock star apologized for
a comedy set in which he said he would kill his son if he turned out
to be gay.
Soon after, 30 Rock
creator-executive producer Tina Fey weighed in on the controversy,
and gay rights groups said Morgan's apology wasn't enough.
Morgan's act was first criticized on
the Facebook page of Kevin Rogers, who is gay.
Rogers claimed the 42-year-old Morgan
said during his weekend comedy set in Nashville that he condoned
anti-gay bullying and would stab his son to death if he found out he
was gay.
“He said if his son was gay he better
come home and talk to him like a man and not [he mimicked a gay, high
pitched voice] or he would pull out a knife and stab that little N
(one word I refuse to use) to death,” Rogers wrote.
Morgan “informed us that the gays
needed to quit being pussies and not be whining about something as
insignificant as bullying. He mentioned that gay was something kids
learn from the media and programming, and that bullied kids should
just bust some ass and beat those other little f*ckers that bully
them, not whine about it. … Tracy then said he didn't fucking care
if he pissed off some gays, because if they can take a f*cking dick
up their ass … they can take a f*cking joke.”
In his written apology, Morgan denied
he condones violence and added that his jokes “clearly went too
far.”
“The violent imagery of Tracy's rant
was disturbing to me at a time when homophobic hate crimes continue
to be a life-threatening issue for the GLBT Community,” Fey said in
a statement. “It also doesn't line up with the Tracy Morgan I
know, who is not a hateful man and is generally much too sleepy and
self-centered to ever hurt another person. I hope for his sake that
Tracy's apology will be accepted as sincere by his gay and lesbian
co-workers at 30 Rock, without whom Tracy would not have lines
to say, clothes to wear, sets to stand on, scene partners to act
with, or a printed-out paycheck from accounting to put in his
pocket.”
Morgan's apology failed to mollify gay
rights groups.
Jarrett Barrios, president of GLAAD,
said his group was willing to arrange a meeting between Morgan and
family members who have lost children to anti-gay violence.
“We urge him to meet with the
Americans at the heart of this epidemic to understand why such words
have no place in our culture today,” Barrios said.
Jody Huckaby, executive director of
PFLAG National, put it bluntly: “A simple apology is not enough.”
And Scissor Sisters' Ana Matronic
offered help via Twitter, “Dear Tracy Morgan's son: if you are gay,
you can TOTALLY come live with me. We'll read James Baldwin &
watch Paris is Burning.”