Terry Crews has apologized for tweeting that children raised by same-sex parents are lacking because they aren’t raised by parents of each gender.
HuffPost reported the "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" actor initially tweeted criticism of a New York Times opinion piece Feb. 24. The piece, called "Why Does Obama Scold Black Boys?" argued that former President Barack Obama was engaging in respectability politics.
“If a successful black man can’t advise the black male youth of the next generation, who will? THE STREET. That’s who,” Crews tweeted.
In a follow-up tweet, Crews said, “Another thing that bothers me is that this OP-ED was written by a WOMAN about how how boys should be taught to grow into successful young men. How would she know? MEN NEED TO HOLD OTHER MEN ACCOUNTABLE.”
Credit: Amy Sussman
Credit: Amy Sussman
By Friday, the weekend, the conversation moved to the role men and women play in raising children, which led to Crews’ appearing to question same-sex relationships.
After tweeting a YouTube link to his 2014 appearance on "The View" in which he discussed the importance of fatherhood, Crews emphasized that maternal and paternal love is needed to raise children.
“You can’t expect to educate people if you don’t listen to others when they try to educate you,” a Twitter user replied.
“I’ve reiterated many times that same sex couples and single parents can successfully raise a child,” Crews responded. “But I believe paternal AND maternal love are like vitamins and minerals to humanity. No matter where you get that paternal and maternal love. MY purpose is to give paternal love.”
Among the comments criticizing Crews for being homophobic was one that said, “Love is not gendered. A child will not starve with only one gender loving them.”
“But they will be severely malnourished,” Crews said in a since-deleted tweet.
After continuing to be called out, Crews apologized for the comment, clarifying that he made the comment in response to the use of "starve."
“I apologize to anyone who was hurt by my ‘severely malnourished’ tweet. It was in response to someone who said kids wouldn’t ‘starve,’” he said. “It was poorly worded so I deleted it.”
But Crews continued to respond to others who said he was homophobic and sexist and as of Monday morning was still critical of Twitter users who disagreed with him.
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