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'The Voice's' Blake Shelton responds to GLAAD: 'I love everybody'
Country singer and one of the coaches on NBC's "The Voice," Blake Shelton has responded to The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's (GLAAD) request for an apology after he tweeted a comment that the organization felt was anti-gay and may be confused as supporting violence against gay men.
"Hey y'all allow me to seriously apologize for the misunderstanding with the whole re-write on the Shania song last night," he tweets in response to the controversy. "It honestly wasn't even meant that way... I now know that there are people out there waiting to jump at everything I say on here or anywhere. But when it comes to gay/lesbian rights or just feelings... I love everybody. So go look for a real villain and leave me out of it!!!"
He later tweeted to GLAAD, "I want my fans and @nbcthevoice fans to know that anti-gay and lesbian violence is unacceptable!!!!!"
"Following outrage from community members and allies," GLAAD President Jarett Barrios says. "Blake Shelton took the right step in speaking out against anti-gay violence and sending an important message to his fans and viewers of 'The Voice.'"
It all started when the singer tweeted his own version of lyrics from Shania Twain's song, "Any Man of Mine" on Wednesday (May 5).
"Re-writing my fav Shania Twain song," he tweets. "Any man that tries touching my behind he's gonna be beaten, bleedin', heaving kind of guy..."
While we saw Shelton's tweet Wednesday evening, we thought it was definitely unfortunate -- especially after a gay performer came out to his father and joined the country singer's team on "The Voice" this week -- but we gave him the benefit of the doubt. We're also giving him the same consideration that he originally meant that tweet to be taken from a female's perspective, because we didn't get that at first.
Do you find his rewrite of Shania's song anti-gay?
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Hope he learns to think before he tweets.
If you didn't get that it wasn't from a man's perspective than you are an idiot. The rewrite of a famous song joke is something Blake does almost everyday. It never even crossed my mind that this was coming from his point of view.
That that what Blake said was right but according to the lyrics (and GLAAD) it is ok for a man to touch another man when it is unwanted? Isn't that rape or the very least sexual harrasement? double standard.
correction to comment - what Blake said WASN'T right...
So if the line "Any man that tries touching my behind he's gonna be beaten, bleedin', heaving kind of guy..." was actually coming from a female perspective, it would be okay by GLAAD's standards? Violence against men is okay as long as women are the ones inflicting the violence?
This is a tough one: I am a very happy and openly gay man in a long-term serious, monogomous, relationship - and I even think, sometimes, that companies like GLAAD (while, the majority of what they do is great) sometimes seem like they are always looking to pick a fight - or get their name in the news *somehow*. Blake Shelton, from everything that I have seen and heard, seems like a stand-up guy. He is also a funny guy. I do not condone violence against women, and I do think that negative and hurtful anti-gay speech needs to stop (side-eyes at you, Kobe), but I don't think that this guy deserves severe negative attention for this.
The piece of his tweets that are missed in this article state (paraphrasing): "Anyone who has ever met me, knows my family, knows my friends, and knows the people that I spend my time with - no that the idea of me being *anti-gay* is not a part of who I am".
I don't think this guy is a villain. Let's go after the Donald Trumps (who trumpet their anti-gay-marriage speech) and Sally Kerns (Oklahoma State Rep: "gays are a bigger threat to america than terrorists") of the world.
YIKES! edit: "....*KNOW* that the idea of being being "anti-gay is not..."
Spot on assessment, JoeyB.
I like how tonight, all the coaches picked the gay guy to win and of course Blake did not. He clearly did not pick the better singer - probably because he really is a homophobe...
Blake picks the worse singer over the better who just happens to be gay. That's pure BS from BS.
Maybe he just wanted to keep the cutest one. hmmmm.... Homophobia usually covers self-loathing.