Kevin Hart Is Standing Up For His Rights
Kevin Hart has till now been a beloved comedy sensation, but Thursday night he became a true hero of freedom. In response to an ultimatum asking him to publicly back down on some homophobic tweets made several years ago, the actor and writer bravely stood up for his right to…uh…not do that.
It is, as the Washington Post has remarked, fairly standard behavior to examine a celebrity’s past public comments (yes, boys and girls, Twitter is a public forum) when they are given a job of high prestige like that of hosting the Academy Awards. And that is the exact position Hart has turned down, citing an “ultimatum” the Academy has given him.
You see, the people of the Internet scrolled through Hart’s Twitter account and discovered a slew of anti-gay Tweets from 2009, 2010, and 2011. They’re just innocent comments that should be taken as a product of their time. After all, this was almost a decade ago. Back then, who wasn’t threatening to hit their son if he played with a dollhouse or making jokes about AIDS?
But the media, as always, had to make this a gauntlet of public penance. In response to the outcry of angry fans, the Academy privately asked Hart to apologize publicly for the offensive comments.
But Kevin Hart won’t take that kind of shit from anybody. When faced with an oppressive organization threatening to take away his God-given right to host the nation’s most prestigious awards show, our man took a stand. He posted a video on Instagram claiming that he “passed” on the Academy’s request for an apology because he has “already addressed” the issue of his past homophobic comments. What do you want from him, Academy? Blood?!
Could Hart easily have tweeted a simple “I’m sorry for my homophobic comments in the past” and kept the job? Sure. After all, America still pretty much hates the LGBTQ+ community and the standards for apologizing to us are not high. But that’s not the point, friends. Kevin Hart will not be beaten down!
Well, except that the backlash following his Instagram post actually did lead him to Tweet an apology mere hours later. But hey, it’s a free country, right? Or at least it’s supposed to be. So what if Hart fell to the libs in the end? Our man still made a brave, heroic stand for freedom. Remember the Alamo.
