YouTuber Logan Paul defends controversial comments: ‘Being gay is cool’
Logan Paul arrives at Audi Celebrates The 70th Emmys. (Jerod Harris/Getty Images)
YouTuber Logan Paul has spoken out about the controversial comments he made about “going gay” for a month, saying “being gay is cool to me”.
The internet personality, who has nearly 19 million followers on YouTube, was discussing month-by-month new year resolutions on his podcast earlier in January.
When it came to March, Paul said: “It’s male-only March. We’re going to attempt to go gay for just one month.”
His comments sparked a widespread backlash, with many people pointing out that being gay is not a choice.
The LGBT rights non-profit organisation GLAAD wrote on Twitter: “That’s not how it works @LoganPaul.”
Monday, 2pm PST:
thanks to @JoshSeefried for the productive conversation about sexuality & the LGBTQ community pic.twitter.com/qFb8dnqq8o— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) January 19, 2019
One tweeter wrote: “Okay, are you f**king kidding me? First there’s no such thing as “going gay”, you either are or you aren’t.
“And I understand experimenting but this is just using the LGBT community for views and it’s sick. F**k Logan Paul.”
Others criticised the YouTuber for being insensitive and not taking the threat of homophobia seriously.
After claiming that the statement was a “very poor choice of words” in a Tweet following the backlash, Paul has now spoken further on the topic in a clip from an upcoming episode of his “imPaulsive” podcast.
In the video, he speaks with Air Force veteran and LGBT+ activist Josh Seefried, who previously criticised Paul for his comments.
Seefried comments on how frightening it could be for Paul to open up about exploring his sexuality as an internet personality, to which the YouTuber replied: “It’s not even scary to me.”
“Sexuality is so fluid nowadays, I don’t even think twice about talking about being gay. I don’t give a shit. …being gay is cool to me.”
He continued to call people who are open with their sexuality “courageous” and “noble”.
“There is nothing more beautiful than being yourself,” he added.
Paul’s remarks come a year after he posted a video showing a dead body in Japan‘s Aokigahara forest, prompting mass outrage.
