Jeff Lewis has no problem holding his tongue. But he seems to be learning that being an outspoken out person can get him in a lot of trouble.
On a conference call with reporters to promote the sixth season of his hit Bravo show Flipping Out (premiering Tuesday, September 4 at 9/8c), Jeff Lewis got a little personal about an incident that recently went down with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Seems that after years of supporting the organization, Lewis was … kicked out! Yup, you heard that right. Jeff Lewis, the guy who has fired more people than Donald Trump, was given the boot himself.
Here’s how things went down in Jeff’s own words:
Did you hear that GLAAD kicked me out? I used to be really involved with GLAAD, and I’d go to their functions and donate money. And this is part of, I guess, when we talk about how I’m so upfront and honest how it gets me in trouble? I accidentally … I was talking about a transgendered person. And I try and keep up with all these politically correct terms, but I still don’t know. And I called somebody a he/she. And I didn’t really know it was offensive. And rather than someone from GLAAD calling me and educating me, what they did was send me a threatening letter that if I didn’t issue a public apology, that I could no longer be associated with GLAAD.
Well of course, I did not do that. Because I don’t agree with that. Because I didn’t mean anything by it. And they kicked me out of the club. So that’s where the honesty gets me in a little bit of hot water even though I didn’t mean anything by it at all. But you’d think that they would just educate me rather than just, you know, boot me. I was so involved. I went to their functions, I donated money, it’s just.. it’s upsetting.
Yikes!
It’s sad to hear that GLAAD would so quickly can Lewis without educating him about the errors of his ways. Then again, I guess this gives Lewis one more thing to flip out about, which is always appreciated.
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We reached out to GLAAD for comment, we will let you know when we hear more.
UPDATE: Here’s the response from GLAAD
We published a guest post on GLAAD’s site from a leading trans writer and sent that post to Lewis and his rep. Before the guest post went up, we contacted Lewis’ team letting them know how members of the trans community were deeply offended by the words he used and asked if he would be open to crafting a brief statement. Lewis declined issuing a clarification or an apology for his comments.
Further, Jeff is mistaken when he says that GLAAD did not reach out to offer a discussion. That’s precisely what our first email to his reps asked for- in addition to explaining why several trans community members were speaking out against his description of the transgender community. Several days later, their response was that he was not going to issue a quote, so today’s comments are surprising.
Matt Kane
Associate Director of Entertainment Media / GLAAD