Carson Daly's gay gaffe could be a
teaching moment for the country, Milk scribe Dustin Lance
Black has said.
Daly created a firestorm of protest on
his radio show Wednesday when he made a joke about JetBlue Airways
pilot Captain Clayton Osbon, who was wrestled to the ground by
passengers as the airplane made an emergency landing.
“On this particular flight, most of
the people were on their way to some sort of security conference in
Las Vegas,” Daly said. “So it was a bunch of dudes, and
well-trained dudes.”
“If that were me … with my luck, it
would be like, 'This is a flight going to the [Gay] Pride parade in
San Francisco.'”
“Uh, we're headed down to Vegas for
the floral convention,” he added with an effeminate voice and a
laugh.
Daly apologized for the joke, saying
he was a “proud” ally of the gay community.
Black, who also penned 8, the
play based on the trial over the constitutionality of California's
gay marriage ban, Proposition 8, told Gay
Star News that he hopes Daly learns from the incident.
“I always look at these as learning
moments,” he said. “So whenever they say something wrong – and
a lot of Americans think it and still leans on these stereotypes,
these myths about gay people – and when someone slips and one slips
out, it's probably something they learned early on. Then they
apologize and correct the record. I think that's a learning moment
for the country.”
“So if someone gets it wrong, if we
can reach out and teach them the truth, and they're willing to learn
that truth and apologize for their mistakes, that's what we've got to
do more of.”
“We have religious communities and
racial minority communities that we need to do a lot more of that
outreach, education and allow them to catch up,” he added.