Ever since fans witnessed the brutal fights between Apollo Nida and Brandon DeShazer on recent episodes of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” NeNe Leakes has been defending herself against critics who say that she instigated the jaw-dropping drama. Although Leakes maintains that her hands are nearly clean in the drama, she recently defended herself against growing claims that she verbally dissed DeShazer because he’s gay.
On Sunday night’s episode of “RHOA,” Leakes discussed DeShazer jumping in Kenya Moore’s drama with Christopher Williams and his beat down from Nida. During her comments, Leakes called DeShazer a “girlfriend,” a “Ms.” and a “queen,” and claimed that DeShazer should have never joined the fray in Kenya Moore’s drama with Christopher Williams.
Since the episode aired, several gay fans have lashed out at Leakes, saying that she offended the gay community by challenging DeShazer’s manhood. However, Leakes, who has both been a public supporter of the gay community and has come under fire for her use of “gay lingo,” challenged the claims of her critics and denied “gay bashing” DeShazer.
“P.S. Did I hear someone say I was ‘gay bashing’ because I called Brandon a queen? Really? Bravo has a show called “Fashion Queens” with two very out gay men in women’s clothing, makeup, jewelry, and high heels! Are they ‘gay bashing’? Try something else, boo, because that won’t work! Girl, bye,” Leakes wrote in a new Bravo Blog post.
We don’t doubt that Leakes loves her gay fans, but this certainly seems like Leakes doesn’t understand her own negative ideas about gay men and is equating femininity to weakness in a man and using “gay lingo” in a derogatory way about DeShazer’s manhood. It’s unfortunate that Leakes seems to think that Nida is more of a man than DeShazer just because DeShazer’s mannerisms aren’t aggressive and hypermasculine. But in the grand scheme of this entire fight, everything that happened and was said between the cast was an embarrassing and upsetting mess.
Check out some other stars who’ve come under fire for homophobic statements below. – nicholas robinson
