‘I stand with the LGBTQ community’: Matt Damon clarifies stance after slammed for ‘f-slur’ controversy
PETALING JAYA, Aug 5 ― Stillwater actor Matt Damon has clarified that he stands with the LGBTQ community, after facing backlash over the ‘f-slur’ controversy.
This comes after Damon's daughter called him out for using the 'f-slur' and penned a letter to him to ask him to quit using it, reported Sunday Times.
“I made a joke, months ago, got a treatise from my daughter, and she left the table.
“She wrote a long beautiful treatise on how the word is dangerous and I said I understood and would never use it again.”
Damon wrote a statement to Entertainment Tonight saying that his daughter had schooled him to stop using what she referred to as “the f-slur for homosexuals”.
The Martian actor said that in Boston, where he grew up, he heard the word ‘f-slur' being used on the streets before he even knew what it meant.
“I explained to my daughter that the word was used constantly and casually and it was even a dialogue line in my movie Stuck on You.
“She, however, expressed her incredulity that there could ever have been a time where that word was used unthinkingly.”
Damon, who admired her daughter for her articulation, said that he did not just agree with her, but was thrilled at her passion, values and desire for social justice.
He also responded to critics who accused him of likely using the slur in his daily life.
Given the open hostility against the LGBTQ+ community is still not uncommon, the actor said that he understood why his 'statement' had led many to assume the worst.
“I have never called anyone 'f****t' in my personal life and this conversation with my daughter was not a personal awakening.
“I do not use slurs of any kind.
“I have learned that eradicating prejudice requires active movement toward justice rather than finding passive comfort in imagining myself 'one of the good guys',” he said.
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