[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/lesbian-bachelor-fan-s-response-to-juan-pablo-galavis-bachelor-star-who-says-gays-should-not-be-on-abc-reality-show-audio\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/lesbian-bachelor-fan-s-response-to-juan-pablo-galavis-bachelor-star-who-says-gays-should-not-be-on-abc-reality-show-audio\/","headline":"Lesbian \u2018Bachelor\u2019 Fan\u2019s Response to Juan Pablo Galavis, ‘Bachelor’ Star, Who Says Gays Should Not Be On ABC Reality Show (AUDIO)","name":"Lesbian \u2018Bachelor\u2019 Fan\u2019s Response to Juan Pablo Galavis, ‘Bachelor’ Star, Who Says Gays Should Not Be On ABC Reality Show (AUDIO)","description":"Here\u2019s the thing, Juan Pablo. We\u2019re not perverts.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Confession: My wife and I have been fans of \u201cThe Bachelor\u201d and \u201cThe Bachelorette\u201d TV...","datePublished":"2014-01-20","dateModified":"2021-06-25","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/author\/kirsten\/#Person","name":"Kirsten Ott Palladino","url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/author\/kirsten\/","identifier":789,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/976931d3a7979cc2fa35b3cc231dcae43d918e04819805bcb68e3c11a00eebae?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/976931d3a7979cc2fa35b3cc231dcae43d918e04819805bcb68e3c11a00eebae?s=96&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Equally Wed","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"http:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/equally-wed-lgbtq-weddings-logo.jpg","url":"http:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/equally-wed-lgbtq-weddings-logo.jpg","width":218,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/juan-pablo-bachelor.jpg","url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/juan-pablo-bachelor.jpg","height":548,"width":822},"url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/lesbian-bachelor-fan-s-response-to-juan-pablo-galavis-bachelor-star-who-says-gays-should-not-be-on-abc-reality-show-audio\/","about":["Marriage Equality News"],"wordCount":1576,"keywords":[" homophobia","celebrities","essays","news","The Bachelor","TV "],"articleBody":" Here\u2019s the thing, Juan Pablo. We\u2019re not perverts.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Confession: My wife and I have been fans of \u201cThe Bachelor\u201d and \u201cThe Bachelorette\u201d TV series since it all began. Yes, we\u2019re lesbians, but we\u2019re not so limited as to only being interested in watching or engaging with people matching our sexual orientation. We believe in love. It\u2019s why we started this wedding magazine for gay and lesbian couples. Because everyone deserves a chance to find love\u2014and ultimately marry the one they love, no matter where they or their partner falls on the gender spectrum.It doesn\u2019t hurt that \u201cThe Bachelor\u201d and \u201cThe Bachelorette\u201d are highly entertaining for us (and a big chance for dulling our brains after running an international LGBT wedding magazine by day and wrangling our twin toddlers in the mornings, evenings and weekends). What does hurt is what Juan Pablo Galavis, pictured above with one of the women vying for his proposal, the latest star of \u201cThe Bachelor,\u201d had to say about gays, which is an oft-used umbrella term for anyone of the queer, same-gender-loving variety.At a network event on Friday night, the Latino soccer star shared his opinions about the possibility of a future gay bachelor, responding to an interviewer with The TV Page: “No… I respect [gay people] but, honestly, I don’t think it’s a good example for kids…” He paused to insert that he has a gay friend (life tip: It\u2019s absolutely vital to say you have a friend in the minority group which you are about to slam before you make your homophobic\/racist\/idiot remarks).Juan Pablo continued, “Obviously people have their husband and wife and kids and that is how we are brought up. Now there is fathers having kids and all that, and it is hard for me to understand that too in the sense of a household having peoples\u2026 Two parents sleeping in the same bed and the kid going into bed\u2026 It is confusing in a sense. [\u2026] There’s this thing about gay people… it seems to me, and I don’t know if I’m mistaken or not… but they’re more ‘pervert’ in a sense. And to me the show would be too strong… too hard to watch.”Uh, what’s so confusing, Juan Pablo? That “the kid” is seeing two people in love who are also devoted to the child, raising him or her in a wholesome manner, providing food, shelter, nurturing and love? How … perverted.\u00a0Galavis has made a statement via his Facebook page in response to the controversy:People,I want to apologize to all the people I may have offended because of my comments on having a Gay or Bisexual Bachelor. The comment was taken out of context. If you listen to the entire interview, there’s nothing but respect for Gay people and their families. I have many gay friends and one of my closest friends who’s like a brother has been a constant in my life especially during the past 5 months. The word pervert was not what I meant to say and I am very sorry about it. Everyone knows English is my second language and my vocabulary is not as broad as it is in Spanish and, because of this, sometimes I use the wrong words to express myself. What I meant to say was that gay people are more affectionate and intense and for a segment of the TV audience this would be too racy to accept. The show is very racy as it is and I don’t let my 5 year old daughter watch it. Once again, I’m sorry for how my words were taken. I would never disrespect anyone.Sinceramente,Juan Pablo Galavis.According to TVGuide.com, ABC released the following statement about the interview:“Juan Pablo’s comments were careless, thoughtless and insensitive, and in no way reflect the views of the network, the show’s producers or studio.”So that’s nice that ABC is distancing itself from Juan Pablo’s crappy interviews. And they were pretty shitty.Here\u2019s the thing, Juan Pablo. We\u2019re not perverts. There are perverts in every group or classification of people. I know you said that wasn’t the word you should have used since English isn’t your first language. OK, here’s a pass for that. But when you went to further clarify your thoughts, you write “gay people are more affectionate and intense.” Um, really? I don’t think it’s fair to say that at all. You’re only perpetuating stereotypes that have perhaps been\u00a0unfairly formed by the 5-second blips of Pride festivals you may have seen on the news, showcasing gay men sporting ass-less chaps thrusting their hips on top of floats. That\u2019s not what my wife and I want our children to see and it\u2019s why we don\u2019t take them to Pride parades.We also wouldn\u2019t want them to see the lack of morals flaunted by the heterosexual men and women who kiss multiple partners and take each other up on an opportunity to explore each other after midnight in a \u201cfantasy suite.\u201d It\u2019s entertainment for adults, pure and simple. The most-dramatic-ever show is about encouraging people to find love, sure, but it\u2019s also about seeing the magnificent places in the world for a romantic date, like cliff jumping in Bermuda or sightseeing in London. And then, it\u2019s the dizzying thrill of watching people fall for each other, rooting for them when the ones we like get a rose, crying for the ones who get sent home\u2014or sometimes wishing they would go home (we\u2019re looking at you, Vienna, Justin, Bentley and Courtney).But regardless of what the Bachelor\/Bachelorette enterprise is about, be it love, entertainment, travel, fashion or just unrealistic expectations for two people to fall in love and get engaged in 6 weeks, it\u2019s not about hate. And that\u2019s what you\u2019re spreading with your poor choice to speak about something you\u2019re clearly so uneducated about. I really wish you hadn\u2019t said anything or just said, \u201cSure, why not?\u201dTo further the frenzy of the self-righteous right-wing nut jobs hell bent on promoting freedom of speech over freedom of the right to pursue happiness and therefore legally marry the person we love was worse than a poor choice of words\u2014it pushes our fight for equality further back (which maybe you don\u2019t care about, despite that gay bestie you claim you have), and it sets the stage for more LGBTQ kids taking their own lives because people in power, people with a voice, people who have the nation\u2019s attention, people like YOU, are telling them and their peers that they\u2019re perverts.Quite sadly, your show has far greater reach than an important message for gay teens from the It Gets Better campaign by The Trevor Project or Shane Bitney Crone\u2019s recent documentary, “Bridegroom,” which explores the tragic story of a young man losing his partner before they could legally marry and is then shunned from his partner’s funeral by his partner’s family who, like you, has preconceived notions of the value of LGBTQ people.\u00a0There are positive messages out there for LGBT youth, and yes, everyone has a right to say what they want. But what you\u2019re saying isn\u2019t about free speech\u2014the claim from your fans who are rushing to defend you and other homophobes (ahem, grizzly bearded man from Duck Dynasty I don\u2019t care to Google for a name check). It\u2019s about social responsibility.When someone with an enormous platform is given the generous opportunity to say something that could create betterment in this world or instead, lead to youths killing themselves because they\u2019re being bullied in school because the hot, handsome man on ABC says they\u2019re perverts whose quest for love doesn\u2019t deserve airtime, you\u2019ve got to check yourself. Words hurt. You\u2019ve hurt a nation, Juan Pablo. I hate to give you that much credit, but you have.\u00a0And once again, we see mobs of people\u2014both irate and joyful\u2014stampeding to one side or the other of the arena wider than the Grand Canyon, pointing fingers and feeling some sort of judgment or shame. It\u2019s sad, Juan Pablo. I thought you were better than that. And you can be. This is your opportunity to not just cover your foul-smelling tracks by slapping on a trite Bill Clinton mask of apology, visiting with PR-appointed groups of people who will forgive you, and releasing another eye-rolling statement about why we\u2019re to blame for taking your words out of context.You need to do more, Juan Pablo. Do more for the community\u2019s heart you\u2019ve crushed with your words. Think about all the children who have LGBTQ parents or any parents who have LGBTQ children. They are just as good as you, and they deserve to grow up in a world that doesn\u2019t immediately dismiss their value based on who they or their parents or children are attracted to. You know that. Do better, Juan Pablo.Sinceramente,Kirsten Ott Palladino Editor in Chief Equally Wed Magazine\u00a0Listen to the full interview here to form your own opinions and tell us what you think in the comments:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Photo via ABC.com"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Lesbian \u2018Bachelor\u2019 Fan\u2019s Response to Juan Pablo Galavis, ‘Bachelor’ Star, Who Says Gays Should Not Be On ABC Reality Show (AUDIO)","item":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/lesbian-bachelor-fan-s-response-to-juan-pablo-galavis-bachelor-star-who-says-gays-should-not-be-on-abc-reality-show-audio\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]