ABC Reality Star Thinks Gays Are Too ‘Perverted’ to Be on The Bachelor (UPDATED)
America, meet your new Phil Robertson. At an event promoting the new season of the hit ABC reality show The Bachelor, this year’s star Juan Pablo Galavis told a reporter that he doesn’t think the show should ever feature a homosexual “bachelor” because it would not be a “good example for kids to watch that on TV.”
Galavis, former Venezuelan soccer star, is the 18th man to take the lead on The Bachelor and the first Latino. The seventeen who came before him were straight white men.
The TV Page’s Sean Daly asked Galavis if he thought it would be a “good idea” at some point to have a “gay or bi-sexual bachelor” and got a definitive “no.” While the reality star said he “respects” homosexuals, he doesn’t think it would “set a good example for kids to watch that on TV.” He apparently pointed to a gay friend in the room to show emphasize that “respect.”
Galavis 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 — Two parents sleeping in the same bed and the kid going into bed. It is confusing in a sense. But I respect them because they want to have kids. They want to be parents. So it is a scale, where do you put it on the scale? Where is the thin line to cross or not? You have to respect everybody’s desires and way of living. But it would be too hard for TV.”
Again, referring to his gay friends, Galavis said that gay people are “more ‘pervert’ in a sense” and “to me the show would be too strong, too hard to watch.”
As Daly pointed out to Galavis, “the show’s a little over the top as it is.” It’s also no stranger to controversy. In 2012, a racial discrimination suit charged that “over the course of 23 seasons, not one time has the show’s eclectic mix ever included a Bachelor or Bachelorette who is a person of color.”
That was evidently something the show was trying to address by casting this season’s Latino star. But they may have just welcomed a whole different controversy to the show.
Listen to the audio below, via The TV Page:
UPDATE (4:15pm ET): ABC, The Bachelor executive producers and Warner Horizon Television have put to the joint statement below, distancing themselves from Galavis’ comments:
“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.”
UPDATE (5:10pm ET): Galavis posted his own apology on Facebook and you can read the whole thing here.
[h/t Huffington Post]
[photo via ABC]
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