Howard Stern and gays

Written by Jenny Stewart on April 29, 2009 in PUBLIC FIGURES ... published on PlanetOut.com


Howard Stern Defends Gays. Again.
If you're a regular reader of this site, you've probably read the various opinion pieces I've written on why I think Howard Stern is one of the most openly pro-gay media figures on the planet.
In my continued quest to convince Stern's non-listeners of this, I wanted to share a snippet from this morning's broadcast. It was one of those many moments on the show where Howard inserts an insightful, positive opinion on gays -- completely out of nowhere.
He was reading his fan feedback email on the air and then went off topic, talking about how someone had just complained to him that the show had become "too gay." Here's the exchange between Howard and his co-hosts Robin Quivers and Artie Lange:
Howard: I was talking to someone recently and they said, 'Oh you have so many gay guests lately, the show is getting too gay.'
OK -- first of all, we don't have that many gay guests. And my feeling about gay people is that we have a responsibility not only to make gay marriage acceptable and to make gays feel as accepted as heterosexuals, but that we have to hold gay people above all others.
Robin: What the hell does that mean?
Howard: In other words, gay people are downtrodden. They're beaten and abused for their sexuality. And it goes across race – it's in the white community and the black community. Gay people are the bastards of the world. And in order for things to change – because anyone of you could have gay children, gay relatives or gay friends –
Robin: And in some countries, you can be put to death for being gay.
Howard: Yes. You know, it reminds [me] almost of the Jews in Europe. In Poland, Warsaw was one of the great cities of Europe. They had Jews and the Jews were very important to the culture of Poland, and elevated the society. And then when the Nazis came and cleaned them out, Poland became what is today – nothing. It's really…not much.
Now, gay people in our society are responsible for some of the most creative arts, and creative science – and not just the Arts, because I don't want this to sound like a cliché. What I'm saying is that they're contributors, they are people who want to thrive and they're artistic and they're free thinkers.
So I think we have a responsibility to make [gays] acceptable. We have to get past all this bullshit, so that some gay kid going to high school doesn’t get the shit beat out of him just because he's gay. And like, what is this hang up with gay marriage, you know? Who cares?!
I mean, we aired a clip yesterday where this guy was carrying on – he's petitioning, and he's devoting his whole life to making sure that gay marriage doesn't happen in his state. And I'm thinking, 'Geez, this man must have the most empty fucking life.' It's just such bullshit.
If you want to believe in God, that's great. But don’t buy into these religions that were created by man that have all these cockamamie rules that were created by some uptight douche bag.
Artie Lange: And God created gay people, so I don’t know what these religious nuts are even talking about. Look, you can become a Nazi and you could be mad at them for doing that. But you're not born a Nazi. Every type of person was created by God, so you love them and accept them. Some people think it’s a choice, being gay, but I really don’t think so. I mean, why would you choose to be downtrodden?
Robin: Why would you choose to get the shit kicked out of you?
Howard: Right.
That was it, and the dialogue was over. And that's the beauty of the Howard Stern show -- that he seamlessly inserted this progressive opinion on gay acceptance in between ridiculing Paris Hilton's self-indulgent Twitter posts and berating a show employee for eating a dead cockroach for $5.00. True, it's a strange setting to place these pearls of wisdom, but, oddly enough, that only makes the message that much more striking.
[Editor's note: You can read the full "Howard Stern Pro-Gay" series by clicking here]