Thursday, April 5, 2012

to send positive messages


ABC news: "As far as I'm concerned, it's between Tracy Morgan and his conscience to figure out the right thing to do," he said. "The appropriate response has to emerge from the conscience and heart of Tracy Morgan." Tracy Morgan meets with Jayden Love at the Ali Forney Center. Siciliano said during the hour that Morgan met with two teens and mother Elke Kennedy, whose son Sean was a victim of anti-gay violence, he appeared sincere, listening attentively and relating some of his own experiences to theirs. As soon as the meeting was over, however, Morgan began to cry. "There were tears pouring down his face," Siciliano said. "I don't know what prompted it, but my impression was that they were tears of shame. To be confronted with the brutal realities of what he was talking about, he felt very remorseful and ashamed." GLAAD put Morgan in touch with the Ali Forney Center after he reached out to the organization, GLAAD spokesman Rich Ferraro said. "It was on his own accord that he contacted us," Ferraro said. "It really does appear he wanted to use this (incident) as a way to send positive messages out there." During today's appearance in Tennessee, Morgan is expected to apologize personally to audience members he offended during the show on June 3. He's also scheduled to hold a private meeting with gay rights activists and make remarks to the press afterward. "Returning to Tennessee and apologizing to those he offended is an important step in showing that Tracy truly understands the weight of his words," GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios said on the group's website. "In a state that continues to put anti-gay laws on the books, it's now more important than ever that we let Tennesseans know that homophobia has no place on or off the stage." (Tracy Morgan's Marathon of Apologies Continues)


Tracy Jamal Morgan (born November 10, 1968) is an American actor, comedian and author who is best known for his eight seasons as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and currently known for playing the role of Tracy Jordan on the NBC series 30 Rock. In June 2011, during a standup performance in Nashville, Tennessee, Morgan made inflammatory comments about gay people, reportedly including that, if his son were gay, he would "pull out a knife and stab" him. Morgan apologized, saying that he had "gone too far," NBC Entertainment head Bob Greenblatt stated, "I speak for NBC and myself personally when I say we do not condone hate or violence of any kind, and I am pleased to see Tracy Morgan apologizing for recent homophobic remarks in his standup appearance... Unfortunately, Tracy's comments reflect negatively on both 30 Rock and NBC two very all-inclusive and diverse organizations and we have made it clear to him that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated." Tina Fey, Morgan's boss both in fiction and in real life, said, "I'm glad to hear that Tracy apologized....but the violent imagery of Tracy's rant was disturbing to me at a time when homophobic hate crimes continue to be a life-threatening issue for the GLBT community...the Tracy Morgan I know, ...is not a hateful man and [would never] hurt another person. I hope for his sake that Tracy's apology will be accepted as sincere by his gay and lesbian co-workers at 30 Rock, without whom Tracy would not have lines to say, clothes to wear, sets to stand on, scene partners to act with or a printed-out paycheck from accounting to put in his pocket." (Wikipedia)

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