Jeff Lewis, the openly gay star of
cabler Bravo's Flipping Out and Interior Therapy, has
described gay rights group GLAAD as oversensitive.
In an interview on Larry King Now,
Lewis discussed the July 2011 incident which resulted in his parting
with the group.
“Basically I was in an interview and
was asked about one of the worst homes I've ever done. And when I
purchased the home there was somebody squatting there who happened to
be a transgender crack addict. Now GLAAD was upset that I used
transgender and crack addict in the same sentence. But that was the
truth. And then where I went wrong is that throughout the article I
referred to the person as a he/she, which I did not know, I guess, is
extremely offensive.”
The interview in question was with
Curbed.com,
and Lewis told the site: “The worst one – there was a house I
bought on King's Road in Sunset Strip and it was in really bad shape.
The older woman who owned it had rented it out to four different
people who lived there. She was renting out rooms, basically, and to
very undesirable people. Normally when you buy a house, the house is
delivered vacant. I thought it was delivered vacant, but when I
started the demo I realized there was this basement that I didn't see
during the inspection, and there was a transgender crack addict. A
lot of times when you buy a house you inherit a feral cat or a
raccoon or something, but in this particular case I inherited a crack
addict – no joke! It took me a couple of weeks to get rid of
he/she. But I didn't even know he/she was living there. It was
pretty crazy – I didn't know until demo day!”
On Larry King Now, Lewis said
GLAAD gave him “no option to clarify,” something
GLAAD has previously disputed.
“They sent me a very kind of stern
letter that said we want you to issue a public apology or we're going
to disassociate [you] from the organization. I don't respond to
threats very well.”
“I did not apologize and I received
my letter kicking me out.”
“I feel like some people are
unnecessarily attacked by GLAAD. And I think they're a bit
overdramatic and oversensitive. And I think that alienates people.
And I think that negates the cause,” Lewis added.
(Watch
the entire episode on Hulu.com.)