Starbucks hero Leslie Jordan: ‘We have to stir the pot but we have to do it without losing our temper’

Leslie Jordan has become something of a tiny hero for standing up to a trio of homophobes at Starbucks in West Hollywood last week.

But the 4′ 11″ actor, an Emmy winner for Will & Grace, now admits he was plenty scared after throwing a glass of iced tea at a guy who had been hurling homophobic slurs while in line inside.

Jordan, a regular at the heavily-gay populated Starbucks, yelled at him and his friends to ‘Get out of my house!’ He then followed the trio out to deliver a lecture.

‘It was the (most) scared I’ve ever been in my life,’ he tells TMZ. ‘I tossed my tea and then pandemonium, mayhem. Ten cop cars.’

Police told Jordan he could file charges as a ‘hate crime; but they could probably come back and counter-charge since he ‘threw the first punch.’

‘I thought, “How butch!’ I threw the first punch,’ he says. ‘It was a glass of tea. But they were coming at me.’

‘These were kids. … Are they truly homophobic? Who knows? They can’t be using that language – not in my house, not in my neighborhood.’

Still, Jordan feels that he went too far in his attempts to scold the trio and turn the incident into a teachable moment.

‘My behavior was atrocious. I handled it badly, I should have let the cops – the minute it happened – just let the cops handle it.

‘We have to stir the pot but we have to do it without losing our temper.’