Following a backlash to calling Sean
Spicer a “good guy,” Karamo Brown, Queer Eye's culture
guy, deleted his Twitter account.
Brown and Spicer, a former White House
press secretary for President Donald Trump, will compete in the
upcoming 28th season of ABC's dancing competition series
Dancing with the Stars. The inclusion of Spicer was widely
criticized. Tom Bergeron, the show's host, said that the choice went
against his hope that the show “would be a joyful respite from our
exhausting political climate and free of inevitably divisive bookings
from ANY party affiliation.”
When asked his thoughts about the
controversy, Brown described Spicer as “a good guy; a really sweet
guy.”
“Actually, no let me tell you
something. Sean Spicer and I have been talking. Yeah, like,
literally, I was most excited to meet him because, like the thing is
that people would look at us and think that we’re polar opposites
but I’m a big believer that if you can talk to someone and meet in
the middle that you can learn about each other and help each other
both grow. So we have been chatting all day today. Like, he’s a
good guy, a really sweet guy,” Brown said.
Brown faced immediate backlash on
social media.
“Famous queer activists sure do love
to turn their backs on the community the moment it benefits them and
plays to their privilege (why yes, this IS a subtweet about Karamo
Brown agreeing to be on DWTS with Sean Spicer),” one Twitter user
wrote.
When Brown failed to calm the
controversy (at first saying that he wasn't involved in the decision
making, then saying that critics were just looking for a reaction),
he began blocking users on Twitter who disagreed with his comments on
Spicer.
In a statement given to Newsweek,
journalist Evan Ross Katz, who was among those who Brown blocked,
called Brown's actions “interesting.”
"Interesting is the word I'll use
to see [Brown] throw out support for Spicer while blocking those
(many from within his own community) that wish to hold him
accountable for normalizing, if not bolstering, this effort to give
Spicer a redemptive platform, one which he most certainly does not
deserve," Katz
wrote.
Marti Gould Cummings, a New York City
LGBT rights activist and drag performer, also was blocked by Brown
after calling him out.
"The reason I called out Karamo is
because as a member of the LGBTQIA community we have to stand against
the workings of [the Trump] administration and the people who are
complicit to its actions," Cummings told Newsweek.
"LGBTQIA people are in the crosshairs of this administration and
giving a platform to someone who directly worked to spread this
agenda is unacceptable. Taking a real stand should outweigh a few
episodes on TV and a check."
Searching for Brown's Twitter account
@Karamo pulls up the message “This account doesn't exist.”