My interviews with Chaz Bono and others about Bill O’Reilly’s comments about “Glee”
It’s not known if Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly will be watching tonight’s Whitney Houston-themed episode of Glee or if he thinks kids who watch it might be influenced into trying cocaine, a drug that contributed to the singer’s death.
But O’Reilly did watch last week’s episode of the musical dramedy when it featured a transgender student. O’Reilly went on to say that the episode and the show’s other LGBT characters might lead some of the kids watching to experiment with their gender identity or sexuality.
I talked to several attendees at Saturday’s GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles about O’Reilly’s remarks including Chaz Bono, the transgender activist who was honored that night.
‘You really have to take the source into account,’ Bono said. ‘It’s Bill O’Reilly. He’s certainly not going to say anything positive about LGBT representation on television.’
But does Bono feel frustrated to hear such things after his triumphant run on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars last fall seemed to educate so many viewers about transgender people?
‘That’s not the lesson he wants you to learn,’ Bono said. ‘He wants you to learn to be closed-minded and bigoted and to think the way that we used to and not to go into a more progressive, open state of mind. You can only really affect people whose hearts and minds are open and so I’m well aware there are people who are never going to understand me or be behind me.’
Go to Gay Star News to read my complete story which includes reaction from Glee stars Max Adler and Grant Justin as well as new GLAAD President Herndon Graddick.
Comments
(All comments are reviewed before being published, and I review submissions several times per day.)
Leave a Reply