Tucker Carlson once bragged on national television about the time he and a boyfriend beat up a gay man in a bathroom. Yikes.
In 2007, when George W. Bush was still President, DADT was still firmly in place, and marriage equality was years away from becoming the law of the land, Carlson took to MSNBC Live to brag about the time he assaulted the man.
“Having sex in a public male bedroom is outrageous,” Carlson said. “It’s also very common.”
Then he added, “I was disturbed in the men’s rooms.”
Carlson went on to explain that the incident happened when he was in high school and lived in the Georgetown Park neighborhood in Washington, DC.
“People should drop this,” Carlson said. “I’m not anti-gay at all, but it’s very common, and gay rights groups should shy away from that kind of bullshit because, you know, it actually bothers people who don’t ask. be disturbed. “
When another guest on the show asked Carlson how he responded, he replied, “I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy by the – you know – and grabbed him. and hit him against the stall with his head, actually. And then the cops came and arrested him.
Did you understand this? Carlson left the scene to find a friend. Then the two returned to the scene to beat the guy up. And then they called the police.
He concluded by saying: “But let me say that I am the least anti-gay right winger you will ever meet.”
After the segment aired, Carlson released a statement to Media Matters clarifying what had happened, in which he tried to tone down the bashing part of the nicks by saying that he and his friend had simply “grabbed” the gash. man who had come upon him:
Let me be clear about an incident I referred to on MSNBC last night: In the mid-1980s, when I was in high school, a man physically grabbed me in a men’s room in Washington, DC. I screamed, walked away from him, and ran out of the room. Twenty-five minutes later, a friend of mine and I returned to the men’s room. The man was still there, presumably waiting to do to someone else what he had done to me. My friend and I grabbed the man and held him down until a security guard arrived.
Several bloggers have described this as a sort of disparagement of homosexuals. This is absurd and an insult to anyone who fought back against an unsolicited sexual assault. I wasn’t mad at the man for being gay. I was angry because he assaulted me.
Prepare yourself, folks. He’s the guy who will now poison the thoughts of all your crazy uncles, reclusive grandfathers and in-laws who don’t support you every night on TV.
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