Gay singer Jake Shears has waded into the Azealia Banks versus Perez Hilton feud, and he's definitely not standing by Banks, who blew up her gay fan base by called Hilton a "messy faggot" on Twitter.
Banks claimed that her bisexuality, the context of her remark and a complicated hierarchy of gendered denigrations of both gay men and women, made her use of the f-word a-okay, but Shears, frontman for Scissor Sisters, disagrees, writing, "It all about context. And right now, I'm sorry, but context is not on your side." He also reminded Banks that singer Donna Summer was "ostracized" for years for her past comments about gay fans, something that may very well happen to Banks.
GLAAD also came out against Banks. "[That] is an ugly, archaic word that was used to stigmatize a population of people who suffer high rates of violence both here in the U.S. and abroad," said Matt Kane, the group's Associate Director of Entertainment Media. "As far as we've come in this society, seeing it used by an artist many young people may look up to is painful, but even more so for those young fans, many of whom GLAAD has heard from."
GLAAD also offered, via Twitter, Banks an opportunity to open a dialogue that they hope will help her change her ways, or at least change her word choice.
