Apparently Bachelor star Juan Pablo Galavis didn’t learn anything from the recent Duck Dynasty/Phil Robertson gay comment controversy!
The Latino hunk put his foot in his mouth last night at a network party in Pasadena, California, and told The Ashley‘s co-author’s site, The TV Page exactly how he feels about gay people, or ‘pervert’ as he called them.
When asked if he felt there should ever be a gay or bisexual man on ‘The Bachelor,’ Juan Pablo said that he didn’t think it would work for TV. This, of course, is probably true and certainly not homophobic. It was what JP said afterwards, in defense of his opinion, that is really causing some controversy.
“I don’t think it is a good example for kids to watch that on TV,” he said, although he was quick to acknowledge the fact that he had a lot of LGBT friends.
No, wait, it gets worse….
“Obviously people have their husband and wife and kids and that is how we are brought up,” he said. “Now there is fathers having kids and all that, and it is hard for me to understand that too in the sense of a household having peoples…Two parents sleeping in the same bed and the kid going into bed… It is confusing in a sense. But I respect them because they want to have kids. They want to be parents. So it is a scale…Where do you put it on the scale? Where is the thin line to cross or not? You have to respect everybody’s desires and way of living. But it would be too hard for TV.”
And even worse…
“There’s this thing about gay people and I don’t know if I’m mistaken or not…they’re more pervert in a sense. And to me the show [with gays] would be too strong, too hard, to watch on TV.”
To prove that he didn’t twist JP’s words to get a great interview, the site’s owner, Sean Daly, even included the audio clip of the interview.
Listen to the full interview audio here!
Oh, Juan Pablo. When will you learn to stick to the cheesy lines the producers have written for you?
UPDATE: ABC has issued a statement regarding Juan Pablo’s remarks, calling them
“careless, thoughtless and insensitive.”
Meanwhile, Juan Pablo is trying to laugh off his insensitive comments with a tweet.
I’m sorry, yesterday I woke ups thinking I was on “Duck Dynasty” with all those smelly men who lay around in the bushes together. lol
— Juan Pablo Galavis (@BachelorTV) January 18, 2014
He quickly deleted the tweet (since ABC probably pissed themselves when they saw him joking about it!) He has also issued this statement:
I want to apologize to all the people I may have offended because of my comments on having a Gay or Bisexual Bachelor. The comment was taken out of context. If you listen to the entire interview, there’s nothing but respect for Gay people and their families. I have many gay friends and one of my closest friends who’s like a brother has been a constant in my life especially during the past 5 months. The word pervert was not what I meant to say and I am very sorry about it. Everyone knows English is my second language and my vocabulary is not as broad as it is in Spanish and, because of this, sometimes I use the wrong words to express myself. What I meant to say was that gay people are more affectionate and intense and for a segment of the TV audience this would be too racy to accept. The show is very racy as it is and I don’t let my 5 year old daughter watch it. Once again, I’m sorry for how my words were taken. I would never disrespect anyone. Sinceramente, Juan Pablo Galavis.
(Photo: ABC)
6 Responses
I feel like they can’t have a gay bachelor because people in the house might fall for each other and not the bachelor. The people competing spend way more time together than the bachelor spends with any of them.
ooooh this is a very good point. Never occurred to me. Still, it would make interesting television!
I speak a second language and it is very easy to say a word that is related to the one you want to say. I have offended plenty of people before I had time to correct myself. Pervert has connotations in our society that aren’t expressed in a dictionary. He didn’t know what he was saying or how it would be taken. He should take a translator with him in the future to clarify because this is really not acceptable.
On the flip side – I think a gay bachelor would have very high ratings. They can edit out anything too racy and families can decide what they allow kids to watch.
Honestly, I read his comments in the exact way that his ‘clarification’ statement stated. I don’t think he meant or intended to insult anyone (the way the duck dynasty guy did). I truly believe that with English being his second language, he did not fully know how to express himself properly, without coming across as offensive.
If anyone’s seen him on the bachelor it’s evident his English isn’t as strong as they would like to make it seem.