Jeff Whitty to Jay Leno: ‘You’ve got to cut it out, Jay.’
Apr 26th, 2024 by Viviane
Jeff Whitty, who created Avenue Q, is sick and tired of Jay Leno’s making fun of gay people:
When you think of gay people, it’s funny. They’re funny folks. They wear leather. They like Judy Garland. They like disco music. They’re sort of like Stepin Fetchit as channeled by Richard Simmons. Gay people, to you, are great material.
Mr. Leno, let me share with you my view of gay people:
When I think of gay people, I think of the gay news anchor who took a tire iron to the head several times when he was vacationing in St. Martin. I think of my friend who was visiting Hamburger Mary’s, a gay restaurant in Las Vegas, when a bigot threw a smoke bomb filled with toxic chemicals into the restaurant, leaving the staff and gay clientele coughing, puking, and running in terror. I think of visiting my gay friends at their house in the country, sitting outside for dinner, and hearing, within hundreds of feet of where we sat, taunting voices yelling “Faggots!” I think of hugging my boyfriend goodbye for the day on 8th Avenue in Manhattan and being mocked and taunted by passing high school students.
Mr. Leno, I have a sense of humor. It’s my livelihood. And being gay has many hilarious aspects to it—none of which, I suspect, you understand. I’m tired of people like you. When I think of gay people, I think of centuries of suffering. I think of really, really good people who’ve been gravely mistreated for a long time now.
You’ve got to cut it out, Jay.
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gay,queer, jay+leno
Thank you for posting this. It really needed to be said. Homophobia is so tired. Why do anything to support it, even in the guise of humor?
Wow, way to go Jeff.
very true, but at the same time we can’t forget to laugh about this stuff. being pc is a very double edged sword.
I didn’t realize Jay was so homophobic. Because he panders to such a dumb audience, I only watch Letterman.
I felt similar about Nia Vardalos, which is a far cry from the issues Jeff mentiosn (in terms of the significance), but continually using one type of culture (whatever it is) as the continual butt of jokes does get tiresome, and also maintains stereotypes that are unfortunately used against the very people.
I suppose, they’re only reflective of the lack of creativity of many public figures/celebrities.