GLAAD addresses Matt Damon's F-slur scandal

A media watchdog founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of LGBT people has spoken out about Matt Damon’s f-slur furore. 

Leading voice in the LGBT community GLAAD has said the derogitory term has ‘no place in mainstream media, social media, classrooms, workplaces, and beyond’.

Earlier this week, Damon, 50, told The Sunday Times he was using the homophobic slur f****t until ‘just a few months ago’ – when his daughter was forced to tell him it was wrong. 

The Bourne star has since clarified that he has never used the slur towards anyone in a demeaning way, but GLAAD has insisted the word should be removed from everyone’s vocaabulary completely.

The non-profile said in a statement shared with TMZ, ‘The conversations that have arisen after Matt Damon’s original interview and subsequent remarks today are an important reminder that this word, or any word that aims to disparage and disrespect LGBTQ people, has no place in mainstream media, social media, classrooms, workplaces, and beyond.’

They add, ‘There needs to be accountability at a time when anti-LGBTQ slurs remain rampant today and can fuel discrimination and stereotypes, especially when used by those outside of the community to defame or describe LGBTQ people.’  

On Monday, Damon insisted that he stands with the LGBTQ community after sparking furious backlash when he told the publication about a conversation with one of his three daughters – Isabella, 14, Gia, 12, and Stella, 10. 

‘The word that my daughter calls the ‘f-slur for a homosexual’ was commonly used when I was a kid, with a different application,’ he said.

‘I made a joke, months ago, and got a treatise from my daughter. She left the table. I said, ‘Come on, that’s a joke! I say it in the movie Stuck on You!’  

‘She went to her room and wrote a very long, beautiful treatise on how that word is dangerous.

‘I said, ‘I retire the f-slur!’ I understood.’ 

Damon has since issued a clarification. ‘I have never called anyone ‘f****t’ in my personal life and this conversation with my daughter was not a personal awakening,’ he told The Hollywood Reporter. I do not use slurs of any kind.’ 

Damon’s fans were stunned by his Sunday interview, with social media users questioning why it has taken him until only recently to stop using the homophobic slur, while others suggested Damon could have ‘canceled himself’.  

Adam Ellis, a New York City-based comic artist and illustrator, said: ‘So Matt Damon has just been walking around his mansion casually saying f****t in front of his daughters? In 2021?’ 

‘Has Matt Damon just canceled himself?’ asked one Twitter user.

American comedian, actor and writer Travon Free said: ‘So Matt Damon just figured out ‘months ago’, by way of a ‘treatise’ from a child, that he’s not to say the word f****t. Months ago.’ 

Damon on Monday attempted to repair the damage. 

‘During a recent interview, I recalled a discussion I had with my daughter where I attempted to contextualize for her the progress that has been made – though by no means completed – since I was growing up in Boston and, as a child, heard the word ‘f*g’ used on the street before I knew what it even referred to,’ he told the site. 

‘I explained that that word was used constantly and casually and was even a line of dialogue in a movie of mine as recently as 2003; she in turn expressed incredulity that there could ever have been a time where that word was used unthinkingly. 

‘To my admiration and pride, she was extremely articulate about the extent to which that word would have been painful to someone in the LGBTQ+ community regardless of how culturally normalized it was. 

‘I not only agreed with her but thrilled at her passion, values and desire for social justice.’

Damon said that he wanted to make clear he stood with the LGBTQ community. 

‘I have learned that eradicating prejudice requires active movement toward justice rather than finding passive comfort in imagining myself ‘one of the good guys.’ 

‘And given that open hostility against the LGBTQ+ community is still not uncommon, I understand why my statement led many to assume the worst. 

‘To be as clear as I can be, I stand with the LGBTQ+ community.’ 

Other social media users questioned why Damon felt the need to share such an anecdote. 

Canadian comedian Deven Green, known as her satirical name Mrs Betty Bowers, said: ‘I’ve lost some respect for Matt Damon for two reasons: 

‘Being a 51-year-old (sic) Harvard-educated person who only realized using homophobic slurs was a bad thing months ago and being foolish enough to think that was a cute story he should share with the world.’

Another user said: ‘I’m screaming because why did Matt Damon tell us that unprovoked?’ 

‘Matt Damon’s teenage daughter going to painstaking lengths, constructing an entire essay on why he shouldn’t use a slur, for his own benefit as much as anyone else’s, only for him to waltz off to the nearest journalist to merrily inform them how often he used it till a week ago,’ said one user. 

‘I want to know what word Matt Damon has replaced f****t with,’ said comedian Billy Eichner, who is also gay.

He also said in another tweet, ‘And to think I didn’t throw a retirement party!’ 

He added: ‘Imagine this headline about any other derogatory ethnic/racial/religious etc slur being used in 2021. People would be up in arms and rightfully so. But you’re still allowed to be homophobic in this fake-woke industry. HAPPY PRIDE!!!’

Film journalist Jordan Hoffman tweeted, ‘Do celebrities not realize they are not legally required to speak to the press?’

The tweet also garnered a response from actor Seth Rogen, who said, ‘They actually literally are a lot of the time,’ referring to actors being required to promote their projects by the studios in their contracts.

Even with that being the case, many were baffled that Damon revealed that information so casually in the interview.

TV writer Chase Mitchell stated, ‘Everybody: The National news media: The trades: TMZ: Matt Damon: ‘Y’know I said f****t until like last Tuesday.’

Writer Charlotte Clymer, who is also a lesbian, added, ‘This news bit about Matt Damon only recently deciding to stop saying ‘f****t’ after his daughter wrote him a ‘treatise’ on it just makes me sad. Geez.’

She added in another tweet, ‘I have a bad feeling that this is an incredibly clumsy attempt at marketing for a film in which Damon plays a good ole boy trying to save his queer daughter from harm, and I gotta tell ya: I know a lot of good ole boys who already get why this is wrong and don’t do it.’

The Young Turks contributor Adrienne Lawrence added, ‘If Matt Damon’s using homophobic slurs at the dinner table in 2021, you can’t tell me he’s not using racist slurs too. Bet.’ 

TV writer Jaclyn Moore added, ‘Remember when the joke was that Ben Affleck was the dumb one and Matt Damon was the smart one? 

‘Because one is dating J-Lo and the other is spending the year of our lord Dolly Parton 2021 bragging about how he just stopped saying ‘f*g.’

Another entertainment journalist, Daniel Fienberg, added, ‘As a member of the press, I like when celebrities talk to the press, but it’s always illuminating to hear the stories that folks like Liam Neeson or Matt Damon think are humanizing and charming, but actually reveal insulation and isolation (among other unsavory stuff) instead.’ 

Freelance writer Erin Biba tweeted, ‘Matt Damon really becomes more intolerable by the second, huh? Like the hole that dude has dug himself might come out the other side of the Earth soon.’  

Damon and his wife Luciana Barroso, 45, have daughters Isabella, 14, Gia, 12, and Stella, 10.

She has daughter Alexia Barroso, 22, from a previous relationship with Arbello Barroso.

Damon went on to complain in the newspaper interview about his words being put under a microscope, saying: ‘Twenty years ago, the best way I can put it is that the journalist listened to the music more than the lyrics [of an interview].’

‘Now your lyrics are getting parsed, to pull them out of context and get the best headline possible. Everyone needs clicks. Before it didn’t really matter what I said, because it didn’t make the news. 

‘But maybe this shift is a good thing. So I shut the f– up more.’