Don’t expect Perez Hilton to be signing up his 5-year-old son for dance classes anytime soon. The celebrity blogger and multimedia entrepreneur sparked criticism by saying he wants his son, Mario Armando Lavandeira III, to grow up to be straight because it’s “easier.” As a result, Hilton said he was reluctant to enroll Mario in a dance class, because “like 50 percent or more of little boys who take dance class end up being gay.” “If I had my preference, I would prefer my son to be heterosexual because that’s easier,” Hilton said in an April 1 YouTube clip posted to his website, which can be viewed above. “As a gay man, I’m not ashamed of being gay, but if I could go back in time and when I was 18, be given a choice ... I would’ve chosen, then, to be heterosexual.” He continued: “Being a gay man, or even a gay woman or a transgender man or a transgender woman in America and around the world is still a harder road to travel on. We are still discriminated against, and I don’t want my son [or daughters Mia, 2, and Mayte, 5 months] to have a harder path in life.” Sunday’s video statement clarified similar comments Hilton made in an episode of “The Perez Hilton Podcast” last week. “This might get me in trouble, [but] I purposefully would not put my son in dance class, because dance class might make your kid gay,” he told co-host Chris Booker. “I would prefer if my son was heterosexual. If I had to choose, I would be heterosexual, too. It would be easier. I’ve said that before.” (Hilton’s comments come at about 26:51 in the “Chippendales” episode of the podcast.) Both the podcast and the subsequent video drew scathing responses from many on social media. They also prompted a lengthy rebuttal from Dance Magazine’s Courtney Escoyne, who wrote Tuesday, “Are there gay men in dance? Yes. Did dancing make them that way? No.” Hilton didn’t back down on his original remarks in the video Sunday, noting, “I don’t think it’s a homophobic thing to say that a disproportionate amount of male singers, actors [and] dancers on Broadway are gay. There are more gay men drawn to that profession. That’s not homophobic ― that’s just a fact.” “If he really wanted to take dance class ― which he hasn’t expressed that ― if he begged and pleaded and I saw that would him truly happy, I would do that,” he said of his son. “But I’m not just going to sign him up for one.” “I said what I said because I think I’m a good dad,” he added.
To be honest all if not most Fathers think like this. Not always in a homophobic way. But we all know the stuff gay boys will go through. Specially if they're not masculine and show any trace of femininity+add the fact of being black. There has been great progress in the past decade. "Life ain't goin to be no crystal stair" for them. Certain environments and social spaces are not welcoming spaces for gay boys.
Yea, I wouldn't want my son to be gay, really only because it's a hard road. Even if he's masculine, there are still so many subtle hurdles to jump in life.
Touché brother Touché. For many of us it takes a looong time to come to grips with the gay thing. Then also try to maneuver in the world also as a black male. If I had a choice I prob would have taken the blue "straight" pill.
While I agree.... How would you feel if a Black father said, "I wish my son wasn't Black due to police brutality, racism, white supremacy".
I get what he was saying, I just think he said it wrong because on the opposite end allowing his son to play football wont make him straight. He should have just left it at as " a parent if it was up to me given personal experience I wouldn't prefer my child to go through what I had to go through being gay." and added at the end he would love him the same either way lol Me personally I think we live in a new age and yes there are still bullies out there but I wouldn't care what my child was gay or straight. Being gay isnt the only thing kids get bullied for. If anything being gay and having a gay child would, in theory, help deal with the hardships of growing up because I know how it is. Most of us if not all of us had no one to talk to or guide us about how we felt.
He wouldn't sign his kid up for dance class but would sign him up for wrestling? LOL. People should sign their kids up for shit their kids are interested in. It is always the adults who are pressing homophobia and vice versa. It is never the kids who are so pressed that they need to make declarations like this...
I agree with him that being straight is easier. But how exactly can dance class make you gay? A lot of Broadway actors were gay before they really pursued that profession.
Thats what im talking about. There are a wide range of dance styles like hip hop, african, ballet etc. He prob meant the more ballet type dance which is considered more fem for men.
Lets be honest tho it even tho one doesn't have to be gay to be a dancer it seems like a lot of male dancers are gay. I don't know why this statement is so controversial Perez Hilton is right even a so-called "liberal" society like America it still harder to be gay. In conservative societies it can dangerous or even deadly to be gay. If I had a son I wouldn't want him to be gay even tho I'm a gay man myself. Hell I feel that way about my nephew. Everyone in my family talks about how much like me he is in terms of his personality and I'm thinking to myself I hope he isn't gay. It's hard enough for him being black and living in a southern state. He doesn't need the added burden of being homosexual.
That line of thinking would ultimately lead to something along the lines of for black people to go extinct as an ethnic group which what white supremacists want so I can't really agree with that statement even tho I understand someone not wanting their child experience discrimination because of their race. Race and sexuality are not the same although there are parallels.