When it comes to the world of fame, everything you say and do will be in the public eye – and this means that you’ve got to be careful about what you say and how you say it.
With the rise of things like social media, we have the opportunity to post publicly our thoughts and feelings with the click of a button. Now, whilst this may be fantastic if it’s used in the right way – it can also cause some significant problems.
Many celebrities have come under fire and been put in hot water due to their controversial or offensive comments which may have come through the form of a tweet or Facebook post.
One of these celebrities that has had a lot of heat is Blake Shelton. Numerous times, the star has said things that could be taken as homophobic, which leads to several questions.
Does Blake Shelton support LGBTQ? Well, we’re not really sure. This guide is going to look at what evidence we have for both sides of the argument and you’ll need to draw your own conclusions!
Read on to learn more.
Who Is Blake Shelton?
For those of you who do not know, it’s a good idea that we clear up who Blake Shelton is first!
Blake Shelton is an American Country Western singer and TV personality. If you are not familiar with his music, you may still recognize the star as being one of the coaches on the TV show “The Voice”.
Other than this, you may know Blake Shelton as being “the sexiest man alive”, from some of his philanthropy work, or simply for being No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani’s boyfriend!
However you might know Blake Shelton, what some may have seen online is the media’s examination into some of his comments that could be seen as homophobic, and indeed offensive to numerous groups.
Before we continue, we must stress that we are not saying that Blake Shelton is homophobic, a racist or a bigot – but rather reporting things that he has said in the past that have lead people to make these claims.
Blake Shelton: Potentially Offensive Comments
So, when we’re asking if Blake Shelton supports LGBTQ, we cannot overlook some of his previous comments he has made, and subsequently the way he responded to the backlash.
Back in 2016, users on Twitter found tweets that Blake Shelton had made as far back as 2010 that could be incredibly offensive. We’ll start by looking at some of the potentially homophobic tweets he has made.
Homophobia
Yes, Blake has certainly made many people question how he really feels about LGBTQ when we’re looking at some of his past tweets. Some of these tweets included the following:
“Grown men who wear Chuck Taylors may as well write on their forehead: cucumbers turn me on”
For context here, Chuck Taylor Converse shoes are now almost ubiquitous with the gay community in areas like Brooklyn New York – and there are many styles and designs for LGBTQ people specifically, for things like Pride festivals.
Resultedly, this as well as the use of language that Blake Shelton chose to use here certainly put him into question.
“Standing in line at a coffee shop in LA with a man in front of me. He ordered a skinny caramel latte, I couldn’t tell he was gay!”
For the context to this tweet, Blake noticed a guy in front of him ordering a type of drink that he believed automatically made someone homosexual. As you can imagine, this did not go down well among the gay community.
“How can I find lesbians attractive? I’m not gay”
This type of comment had little context to begin with and merely suggests that Blake thinks that lesbians can’t be attractive to anybody who isn’t gay.
He also once asked his gay friends on Twitter if their favorite candy was Skittles, assumingly he was referring to Skittles motto of “taste the rainbow” and trying to link that to the LGBTQ community.
This tweet fell like a lead balloon and most users on twitter saw this a joke in very poor taste for no real reason. But these tweets do not stop at just potentially being homophobic, there’s others that are potentially offensive.
Racist
Some things Blake Shelton has said on social media can also be taken as racist. He’s made some of the following comments:
He was angry that the shuttle bus driver could not “speak a f****ing word of English”
He was also irked at the fact that the guy next door should “learn to speak English” so he knows “what he’s planning to bomb”
Of course, these are very offensive tweets and have not helped Blake when we look at how tolerant the star is.
Blake’s Apology
Blake Shelton made an apology on Twitter about these tweets that were unearthed. To paraphrase his apology, he said that anybody who knows him will also be aware that comedy has played a huge role in his career.
He went on to say that while his comments might appear as inappropriate, immature and distasteful – they are not intended to be hateful, and he does not tolerate hate in any format.
He finalized the tweet by apologizing to anybody that may have been offended by comments and tweets he has made in the past.
However, despite this apology – many people in the LGBTQ community feel as though it was more of a token gesture and a bit of a fake apology, if anything.
As we said earlier, we are not saying that Blake Shelton is supportive or against LGBTQ because we simply do not know, we are merely reporting these instances that are in the public domain.
Hello, my name is Gay Worlley - no, really - and I love learning about all things queer. I am also a qualified gardener and enjoy traveling in my spare time.
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