Tracy Morgan Calls Being Gay a Choice

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 9:46am

http://advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2009/11/11/Tracy_Morgan_Calls_Being_Gay_a_Choice/

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 9:54am

It would be nice if there was an actual quote, so it could be contextualized. I really hope we don't all go "get the scary black man off the tv show" like we did with Isaiah Washington.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 9:57am

My first thought was "Hmmm, 30 ROCK will be doing some recasting soon. I wonder when auditions are!"

[tazber]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 10:03am

Well I guess he would know since being black is a choice too.

[Tom1071]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 10:06am

This doesn't really surprise me.

[madbrian]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 10:15am

I've never seen Tracy Morgan come across as anything other than a complete moron, so nothing would surprise me. That said, his onstage persona may be just that, a persona. Without context, it's impossible to say that his comments reflect his beliefs, or that of some character.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 10:20am

Well, Jane Krakowski cheered and gave a standing O, so I think we should take away her Tony award.

Of course, I felt that way before this incident.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 10:22am

And it is his right to think so. When someone pays to see an entertainer, you are paying to hear their opinions. His shtick seems to be saying ridiculous things and then acting like he thinks it's socially correct. With this one, you just have to consider the source.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 10:37am

I still can't find exactly what he said anywhere.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 10:55am

The Daily News has his crack about the Obamas' sex tape:

==

Some of the controversial jabs he made included a set about the First Family.

"Obama is really changing the White House, because he and Michelle will have the first presidential sex tape out," he said to a stunned crowd.

Audience members walk out of Tracy Morgan's bawdy Carnegie Hall performance

[Dolly_Levi]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 10:59am

I have never understood his appeal.

[tazber]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 10:59am

Well that didn't necessarily offend me, it simply isn't funny.

[Q]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 11:01am

". . . unspeakably filthy."

Really?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 11:07am

Please, please, PLEASE my queer bros and sisses and their straight allies and supporters and the questioning: I BEG of you. Can we PLEASE not go off on the "how dare somebody say being gay is a CHOICE?????" rants, because fundamentally, that is a homophobic argument.

Who CARES if it's a choice or not? To argue the biological determinate angle is to strike a pathetic "I am a VICTIM" mode (the one exhibited by the old queens in the Every Little Step documentary) and to imply that nobody would choose to be gay.

Why on earth wouldn't some people choose to be gay? And what is wrong if they do? People DO have a right to make choices in life.

[Q]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 11:09am

I'm right with you on that, Namo.

Frankly, I'm in favor of a tighter selection process (with all the puns intended.)

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 11:23am

I think he's bananas. I also think he's hilarious. I just think if people are going to get their panties in a twist over something he said, we should actually get to see what he said. Just saying being gay is a choice isn't enough to rile me. Maybe if he'd said being "so-called" gay. :)

And I think Namo is right about the argument that asking why someone would choose to be gay is kind of homophobic, or at the very least regressive.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 11:23am

And all this insistence on the part of many gay people (mostly men, in my experience) that they were BORN "this way" encourages the needless search for a biological cause, which then leads to the search for a biological cure.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 11:29am

Agreed. I remember way back in the day when I came out thinking and saying stuff like "Why would anyone choose it when (insert whatever horrible thing you can think of) could happen, etc?" But age and life experience have shown me that I'm pretty okay with my life the way it is and me being the way I am, so perhaps given my druthers I WOULD choose it, if I had to do it all over again. I can't imagine living in a world where I don't want to have sex with Sasha Baron Cohen, you know?

[Roscoe]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 11:30am

Well, I'd say that the whole "gay is a choice" argument is homophobic, too. There's the implication that if you don't like being gay, you can choose something else.

Posted: 11/11/09 at 11:31am

He also said that giant hamsters from outer space come here to eat his Spaghetti-os.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 11:37am

Or Sebastian Le Cause. Or my boyfriend. Or this Brazilian I know. Or all the fellas at Le 5018 Montreal (bon jour, guys, if you're reading this ) .

Choice of being gay or straight: Wouldn't you choose to be Stephen Sondheim over Andrew Lloyd Webber?

Of course, Roscoe, a lot of people are using the "gay is a choice" line homophobically, but I have yet to hear a gay man who is so adamant about it not being a choice sound like anything more than a victim. The only answer I know of that will really shut up some homophobe going on about "Being gay is a choice" is to say "So what?" They do not know how to respond because they can't. And you know why? Because then they are implicated in it. It means, rightly so, that they could choose the act on their homosexual desires. That's what this is really about.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 11:52am

I am not for taking this dumbass to task for saying it, but I will argue that it is not a choice for many. Allowing people to believe that it is something chosen paves the way for more and more ex-gay organizations. It slams the door on a lot of parents trying to understand their children. It also tells young people that they can absolutely choose to be with a member of the opposite sex regardless of their natural attraction and that they are a failure if it doesn't work out. We've all seen where situations like that can lead.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 12:02pm

I agree that many people feel it is not a choice. But I do not feel that anybody anywhere should broaden his or her experience out to include everybody else. There may be some people who DO make a conscious choice to become involved with a member of their own gender. This does not make their choice any less authentic than the birthers, to coin a term.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 12:07pm

"There may be some people who DO make a conscious choice to become involved with a member of their own gender."

Well, I agree that engaging in homosexual sex IS a choice, but I'm not so sure I believe that being attracted/turned on by someone of the same sex is.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/11/09 at 12:10pm

That's fine. For you. But you can't speak for certainty for everybody. And blaming something for "causing" it is just going to lead somebody to try to find a way to "cure" it and next thing you know it's Twilight of the Golds.