The truly annoying part is that he made an apology immediately after the video came to light, about how he didn't realise how offensive it was and promised never to use the word again. That should be a good thing, obviously, but if he could come to this remarkable epiphany only moments after getting caught on camera, how come he couldn't come to the same understanding in the previous months or years he has been a cast member on this supposedly enlightened show?
If he didn't realise the camera was filming, that means he would have said it regardless. Which means he has probably said it plenty of other times when the camera was not rolling as well. But he didn't come to the realisation that it was wrong all those times, did he? No, as long as he thought the camera wasn't on him, he thought it was fine to keep saying it. And this despite having been a cast member on a series that features gay characters and which prides itself in being a positive representation for gay characters, even winning a GLAAD award.
Now of course we should let people reform if they genuinely mean it, or else how are they ever going to learn, or be a true ally going forward? But it's hard to trust that this apology is real, when if he was going to come to this realisation at all, he's had all that time working on 'Shadowhunters' to do so, and somehow didn't.
But that's exactly the problem – people use the word so casually, never thinking they're being homophobic by doing so, but they are. I don't believe it's even possible to know the word and not know that it's an insult towards gay people. Maybe he didn't use the word while thinking "I fucking hate gays, I'll kill em all", but that just goes to show how unthinking about the words he uses he was. Besides which, it's not up to the user of a slur to decide whether the target of that slur gets to be offended by it or not.
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