Tom Araya’s Daughter Defends Dad and Trump Photo Controversy: “He isn’t homophobic.”

Both the official Slayer camp and Kerry King himself have already commented on this week’s brouhaha surrounding Tom Araya, a Photoshopped Instagram photo of Donald Trump, and some really insensitive comments. But now Araya’s daughter Ariel has taken it upon herself to defend her dad, vaulting this story back into the media just when it seemed poise to finally die out.

This isn’t the first time that Ariel, now 20 years old, has taken to the internet to defend her dad. In 2015, a photo that was several years old of the Araya family at the Grammys — with Ariel hilariously looking quite perturbed at Tom — starting making the rounds, after which Ariel shot down all the haters while also taking a swipe at Slayer’s modern day output: “I love the old Slayer. Some of the newer stuff is eh. My dad misses being home. He isn’t lame. He’s been the best dad he can be with our circumstances.”

This time Ariel’s remarks are a bit more pointed. In a post on Blabbermouth’s Facebook page linking to the original article with Kerry King’s response to the recent uproar, she left a comment with the following:

I’m gonna make this post public, in hopes y’all would share this and MAYBE get the hardheaded people to FINALLY listen to all the nonsense surrounding my Dad.

To be frank, I’ve been defending my dad from the media in an effort to try and reach the hard-headed people that chose to ignorantly read a title and not actually try to understand my Dads caption to the photo. He never supported anybody. He simply wants people to stop crying and complaining about something that can’t be changed. He’s president wether people like him or not. He thought the picture was funny and posted it, and someone removed it. So the snowflake comment was directed at WHOEVER removed it. But people took offense anyways. And the gay ‘joke’, wasn’t because he’s homophobic. He isn’t homophobic, but simply put what MANY OTHER PEOPLE have been saying online. He doesn’t like bullying. He doesn’t like idiots. He’s just a man that was taken out of context. ????But people live to destroy others in an effort to validate their opinions. If you want to bash my Dad for apparently “supporting” Trump, (which he wasn’t), then don’t forget that Kerry endorsed Hillary in a Rolling Stone interview, and Gary endorsed Sanders in a Blabbermouth interview as well. Think what you will, because most people just blindly follow what the media says anyways. But it’s cool. Go ahead and loose your shit over it. We’re just doing our own thing. ????????‍♀️

Let’s start with Ariel’s assertion that her dad doesn’t support Trump. That certainly may be the case; he hasn’t publicly supported anyone, and the Photoshopped picture he posted could’ve been funny taken from either side of the aisle. HOWEVER, his use of the term “snowflake” echoes the language currently in play by the right, and it’s not really the photo everyone is upset about, anyway: it’s the incredibly insensitive putdown he uttered about gay people, and its tacit support of Vice President Pence’s gay conversion therapy legislation (which is basically torture).

Second, her (and Tom’s) assertion that people should “stop crying and complaining about something that can’t be changed” is complete and utter bullshit. Complaining, protesting and plain old discussion about our government — and the freedom to disagree with what it’s doing without fear of being persecuted for differing opinions — are the very bedrock of this democracy. We’re going to keep complaining, and we’re going to do so loudly until those in power listen. Especially with all the grave injustices our new President is just beginning to perpetrate after only one week.

Third, Ariel’s claim that her dad isn’t homophobic is patently false. If Ariel means that her dad isn’t going around shouting epithets at gay people and isn’t actively “scared” of them, OK, I believe that. But that’s not the full definition of homophobia; his comments at best displayed a complete lack of empathy for homosexuals and were very, very insensitive, and at worst were a tacit endorsement of gay conversion therapy. And the fact that “MANY OTHER PEOPLE have been saying” the same things online doesn’t matter one bit; it’s still offensive.

Finally, don’t worry, we certainly didn’t forget that Kerry King endorsed Hillary and Gary Holt endorsed Bernie Sanders! Well noted.

Sorry, Ariel; we appreciate your efforts to defend your father, but he’s still way off base and out of touch.