How Many Times Does Eminem Have to Say He Isn't Anti-Gay, You Faggots?

Rolling Stone recently asked Eminem about the anti-gay content in his newish "Rap God," song. In it, the decidedly mortal man says "faggot," "fag," and "Little gay looking boy / So gay I can barely say it with a straight face looking boy." He's not homophobic, though—he's just being Marshall. Here is the excerpt from the interview, which was conducted for an upcoming cover story:



To actually mean "homosexual"?




A few things:

  • Eminem has not made his stance on gay people clear. Rather, he's been contradictory and furthermore obscure (and/or shitty-ish) when pressed.
  • He has equated and is equating those words with actual gay people. See: "Criminal" ("My words are like a dagger with a jagged edge / That'll stab you in the head, whether you're a fag or lez / Or the homosex, hermaph or a trans-a-vest / Pants or dress, hate fags? / The answer's "yes" / Homophobic? Nah, you're just heterophobic"). Also see the very song in question, in which the words "fag" and "gay" appear in the same verse, and in which the connotation of "gay" is driven home by ironic wordplay with "straight face."
  • Even though we're only dealing with words, this still feels like a question of action (in this case rapping) versus words (what he says in interviews). It's lyrics versus lip service. The words Eminem says on record sound a lot less publicist-tailored and phoned-in than his views on our sexual utopia. So yeah, people aren't going to understand what you're doing when what you're supposed to say is still contradicting what you're actually saying over a decade after you declared that you "hate fags." ("I'm just like whatever," a few years later was a poor excuse for a mea culpa.) Eminem may actually be "glad" to live in a time when people are less abused (by the very words he uses, among things) for being themselves, but if he is an LGBT ally, he's a supremely shitty one.
  • That past decade considered, the issue of Eminem's homophobia is tired. The is-he-or-isn't-he debate benefits him by keeping him controversial. The discourse-crippling "think about the children" argument aside, what's truly offensive aren't the schoolyard taunts of an idiot who has no real insight into LGBT equality, but his cowardly rationalizations. What's worse than a bigot is a shameful, excuse-making bigot. Fuck this guy.

[Image via AP]