Tracy Morgan’s Meltdown? – Advocate.com
Comedian Tracy Morgan in March.
Watchdog group Truth Wins Out is calling on comedian Tracy Morgan to explain himself after an account surfaced online of an onstage tirade against gay people – even joking about killing his own son if he were effeminate, according to a member of the audience.
Morgan’s strange series of jokes would have come while in Nashville on June 3, playing at the 2,300-seat Ryman Auditorium, and the audience reportedly egged him on with hoots and cheers while others walked out.
Audience member Kevin Rogers took to his Facebook page to describe the scene. Rogers said the 30 Rock star joked that “women are a gift from God and that ‘Born this Way’ is bullshit. Gay is a choice.” Morgan is said to have called gay people “mistakes.” Morgan said lesbians just hate men and don’t have real attraction to women, according to Rogers’ account.
On bullying in schools, Morgan is said to have advised gays to “quit being pussies” and stop whining. Then, Rogers said Morgan talked about killing his son.
“He said if his son … was gay he better come home and talk to him like a man and not [he mimicked a gay, high pitched voice] or he would pull out a knife and stab that little N (one word I refuse to use) to death,” Rogers wrote on Facebook.
Morgan’s publicist has so far not returned email or phone messages from The Advocate. Truth Wins Out had the same experience, and it’s using its website to demand an explanation.
“No comment is not acceptable,” said Wayne Besen, the group’s founder. “If someone had accused me of making such remarks in a presentation, I would drop everything I was doing to clarify it. To try and sweep it under a carpet and pretend it doesn’t exist is offensive in itself.”
Although Morgan has come under scrutiny before for telling an audience at Carnegie Hall that being gay is a choice, this latest addition to his act would be pushing the boundaries of what’s appropriate much further.
Evan Hurst, the group’s social media director, is from Tennessee and knows Rogers from his work with the Tennessee Equality Project, and that relationship gave him enough confidence in the account to warrant attention.
“We are pretty thick-skinned around here because you have to be,” Hurst said of Tennesseans, who have endured a recent spate of antigay legislation. “And for the number of people who were going, ‘I am genuinely offended by this, this is hurtful, and this is meant to hurt,’ I think we are looking at something different here.”
The venue for the show distanced itself from Morgan with a statement issued today to The Advocate.
“The Ryman Auditorium regrets that people were offended by statements made by Tracy Morgan during his June 3 appearance,” the statement reads. “The Ryman does not control the content presented by people appearing on its stage, nor does it endorse any of the views of, or statements made by such persons.”