Phil Labonte is not Homophobic… Just Ignorant
Late last year All That Remains frontman Autotune Labonte took to the Internet to level some anti-gay epithets at Black Veil Brides frontman Andy Biersack, then tried to defend the use of the word “faggot” to much ridicule from the metalsphere. Now everyone’s favorite Antares posterboy has revisited the incident in a new interview in Revolver Magazine, and he just continues to prove his ignorance. Excerpt:
How about when you called Andy Biersack a faggot? After that, you had a lot of people call you homophobic.
I don’t worry about what people think about me. I’ll call everyone in my band a faggot and some people who read that get really butt-hurt. I just don’t know why. What happened to, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me”? I don’t advocate hurting someone’s feelings because of their sexual orientation, but at the same time, if it really offends you when someone says “faggot” you need to man up. It’s just a word.
Do you think gay marriage is wrong?
Absolutely not. Passing laws against gay marriage is the most ridiculous thing in the world. The idea that gay people shouldn’t enjoy the same rights that straight people do, that’s offensive to me, because they’re just people, and it certainly isn’t my right to go ahead and tell people how they can live or cannot live.”
The good news is that the second paragraph should make it pretty clear that Phil is indeed not actually homophobic. That position is consistent with his well-publicized Libertian viewpoint anyway. Unfortunately, Labonte fails to realize that using the word “faggot” as an insult perpetuates the very stereotypes and gay hatred that he claims to be against.
Look, Phil, you can claim that the “liberal metal media” (and you’d be correct to use that term) gives you a hard time for being un-PC, but I think you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone — liberal, conservative or otherwise — that’d be ok with you using the word “nigger” to describe someone you don’t like. This is no different. Hey Phil: “man up,” grow a pair, and stop being “really butt-hurt” about everyone’s reaction to your use of the word “faggot.”
