Roland Martin Apologizes While Wife Sends Out Hatred Twits against GLAAD and CNN

 

Roland Martin  

CNN’s Roland Martin made national headlines this week for tweeting an anti-gay and violent comment. After issuing an apology to the LGBT community and to Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the network suspended the commentator but he still plans to meet with the organization in the "near future."

"I look forward to meeting with GLAAD in the near future and having a productive dialogue," Martintweeted. GLAAD replied and wrote, "@rolandsmartin We look forward to a productive dialogue and to working together as well."

Despite Martin’s efforts to repair the relationship between himself, the gay community and the organization, Martin’s wife took to Twitter and slammed GLAAD and CNN. Jacquie Hood Martin apparently wasn’t too happy when she found out that her husband had been suspended from CNN, America Blog Gay reported. Jacquie replied to someone named Sophia A. Nelson, who tweeted that GLAAD is a bully and that "Roland is being used as the whipping boy." Jacquie wrote, "@SophiaRedefined @cnn @glaad uses our history to gain their equality & then stabs the point man in the back. Don’t ask us for nothing else!"

America Blog Gay also points out that Jacquie’s Twitter has been deleted but many are claiming that her account was hacked.

GLAAD has not responded to Jacquie’s tweets.

When GLAAD issued a statement against Martin for his homophobic tweet, the organization also mentioned that Jacquie has "counseled many men and women to walk away from the gay lifestyle,"EDGE reported.

Martin originally tweeted about a Super Bowl that featured David Beckham modeling his H&M underwear line. "If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him!" he wrote. GLAAD then condemned the on-air sportscaster and asked CNN to fire him.

by Jason St. Amand     edgeftlauderdale.com

Let’s look at some tweets and see who Sophia Nelson is:

Sophia A. Nelson, the author of  Black Women, Redefined, seems to be trying to whip the entire Roland Martin issue—the commentator was Suspended by CNN after he made some homophobic tweets—into a race war. Or trying. And she's getting help from Martin's wife, Jacquie Hood Martin, whose ministry supports the concept of ex-gays:

Reframing this as a race issue is pretty low. I don't see how there is even a whiff of racism in Martin's boorish tweets getting him in hot water. If a gay man made racist comments along the same lines ("Man, if your kid starts talking all ghetto, beat the shit out of him" would be a parallel), I have no doubt that most people would find that highly offensive and he would be punished. And I doubt the LGBT community would think it had to do with the person's sexuality so much as their inflammatory words.

I will say, though, that Jacquie Hood Martin's tweet reminds me strongly of the very unfortunate comment Dan Savage made after Prop 8 was passed, which was also very "us vs. them." (I was critical of that at the time, as were many others.)

As I told Mrs. Martin and Ms. Nelson, the only us vs. them is non-bigots vs. bigots, not blacks vs. gays; and need they be reminded that many gays are black???

Really such a sad statement that Mrs. Martin thinks gay people have used black history to get our rights—first, it implies we don't deserve them; second, it overlooks the fact that many, many gay people (not only black ones) were deeply invested in the black civil rights struggle.

Can't we all get along? Maybe we can, but it's so dispiriting that all it takes is something relatively minor like some unacceptable tweets to expose deep resentments.

P.S. Worst irony of all: Some black supporters of Martin decrying that "#PCSucks" and mentioning that "acronym activist" groups like PETA and GLAAD are the real bullies. Sounds exactly like what right-wingers say when attacking the NAACP. Gaystarnews