6:12 pm - 08/30/2012
Soap Drama: Y&R Star Greg Rikaart Calls Days Of Our Lives Star Melissa Reeves An Anti Gay Bully
After Rikaart's Twitter war with Melissa Reeves over her supporting Chick-fil-A, Greg talks moar about what went down and his feelings over the issue of ani-gay bigotry.
TV Guide Magazine: Alrighty then. Let’s go to a topic you do have lots of opinions about — your Chick-fil-A war with Melissa Reeves. Your tweets and follow-up piece in the Huffington Post won you a lot of support, yet you also heard from people who thought you were unfair and out of line. Where you at with all that?
Rikaart: It was very disappointing to read some of the responses. I did get a lot of support but the general tone of political discourse in this country is very disheartening. I was getting challenged by some people for having attacked Melissa Reeves when, frankly, what I said was anything but an attack. I expressed my disappointment that she has aligned herself with a company that promotes hatred and bigotry, and I stand by that. I welcome a conversation with her. It’s the only way people on different sides of an issue can meet in the middle and understand each other’s point of view. I would have loved that opportunity with Melissa but she blocked me from her Twitter account. [Reeves subsequently blocked everybody by shutting down the account.]
(I'd like to bold his entire response, but your eyes might blow out of your sockets. Just read it.)
TV Guide Magazine: Some folks feel you attacked Reeves’ right to free speech.
Rikaart: No one is saying that Melissa Reeves doesn’t have a right to free speech. Dan Cathy, the president of Chick-fil-A, is also entitled to his opinions and beliefs but he’s funding organizations that are hate groups, organizations that want to criminalize homosexuality in this country and throughout the world, and that’s where Melissa Reeves’ alignment is really disappointing to me. I am proud to stand up and be an advocate for LGBT rights. This is the last hurdle of the civil rights movement. I’m glad this is such a hot-button issue. I’m glad people are so impassioned about it, even the people who are against equality for all Americans because they are reacting out of fear, fear that the LGBT community is winning. And it is winning! Part of why I stand up and am proud to be an advocate is because this is less about grownups than it is about children. This is no different than kids being bullied in a schoolyard. People wonder why there is an epidemic of bullying in this country. Well, it’s because kids are learning it from the grownups, from people like Melissa Reeves who is a grown-up bully. I believe in respecting everyone’s religious beliefs but those beliefs don’t belong anywhere near my rights or anyone else’s.
TV Guide Magazine: Is Twitter the best place for such discourse? Isn’t all that short, hot, frenzied commentary, much of which can be misinterpreted, only adding to the discord? Just throwin’ it out there.
Rikaart: Well, maybe, but on the flip side I feel like I have this tiny bit of notoriety and it’s my soapbox. Because of what I do professionally, people are interested in what I have to say on Twitter and it’s nice to be able to stand up for the things I believe in.
If he was attacking Reeves' right to "free speech" in the United States, Greg would have had to be the calling for government prosecution over her remarks. Read the first ammendment peoples!
Melissa must hate being in a show with a gay storyline, and having to be in the same room with a gay character.
Melissa played dumb over the whole situation. Her nobody friend came to her defense:
Gay advocate Crystal Chappell has come out to defend her former Days Of Our Lives co-star Melissa Reeves, following Reeves' controversial Twitter support of Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day. In a blog post entitled, "Missy", Chappell shared what happened when she contacted mutual gay and married friends of Reeves. Here's an excerpt:
I reached out to our gay (see, some of her best friends are gay) and married friends. Missy had called them in tears soon after the shit hit the fan. She told them how much she loved them and that the implication of that tweet was not what she intended. She said she saw half a tweet about Cluck Filet and thought she was supporting Free Speech. Nothing more. I thought...OK. Um....twitter fuck up? I've stepped into twitter convoys without really knowing what was being talked about and made a mess for myself unintentionally. Realizing after I stepped into it that I don’t at all support the person's words I stood up for. OK....it happens. And then I asked our gay and married friends...well, why not just say that to the folks in twitter land? Was someone telling her not to? Is it work related? Ostrich in the sand syndrome? If I don’t see it, it doesn’t exist kind of thing? Blonde moment? The more time went by the more frustrated I and my friends became. It started to hurt. We all know Missy has very strong religious beliefs but the person we know and love....is NOT a bigot.
Really? Reeves "thought she was supporting Free Speech. Nothing More"? So Reeves wasn't at all aware that Chick-fil-A is at the center of a heated, national gay rights debate, or that the reason Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day even existed was to support COO Dan Cathy, following his declaration in the press of support for "traditional marriage"? Sorry, but I cry foul with this explanation.
Gayblackcanada, Daytime Confidential
TV Guide Magazine: Alrighty then. Let’s go to a topic you do have lots of opinions about — your Chick-fil-A war with Melissa Reeves. Your tweets and follow-up piece in the Huffington Post won you a lot of support, yet you also heard from people who thought you were unfair and out of line. Where you at with all that?
Rikaart: It was very disappointing to read some of the responses. I did get a lot of support but the general tone of political discourse in this country is very disheartening. I was getting challenged by some people for having attacked Melissa Reeves when, frankly, what I said was anything but an attack. I expressed my disappointment that she has aligned herself with a company that promotes hatred and bigotry, and I stand by that. I welcome a conversation with her. It’s the only way people on different sides of an issue can meet in the middle and understand each other’s point of view. I would have loved that opportunity with Melissa but she blocked me from her Twitter account. [Reeves subsequently blocked everybody by shutting down the account.]
(I'd like to bold his entire response, but your eyes might blow out of your sockets. Just read it.)
TV Guide Magazine: Some folks feel you attacked Reeves’ right to free speech.
Rikaart: No one is saying that Melissa Reeves doesn’t have a right to free speech. Dan Cathy, the president of Chick-fil-A, is also entitled to his opinions and beliefs but he’s funding organizations that are hate groups, organizations that want to criminalize homosexuality in this country and throughout the world, and that’s where Melissa Reeves’ alignment is really disappointing to me. I am proud to stand up and be an advocate for LGBT rights. This is the last hurdle of the civil rights movement. I’m glad this is such a hot-button issue. I’m glad people are so impassioned about it, even the people who are against equality for all Americans because they are reacting out of fear, fear that the LGBT community is winning. And it is winning! Part of why I stand up and am proud to be an advocate is because this is less about grownups than it is about children. This is no different than kids being bullied in a schoolyard. People wonder why there is an epidemic of bullying in this country. Well, it’s because kids are learning it from the grownups, from people like Melissa Reeves who is a grown-up bully. I believe in respecting everyone’s religious beliefs but those beliefs don’t belong anywhere near my rights or anyone else’s.
TV Guide Magazine: Is Twitter the best place for such discourse? Isn’t all that short, hot, frenzied commentary, much of which can be misinterpreted, only adding to the discord? Just throwin’ it out there.
Rikaart: Well, maybe, but on the flip side I feel like I have this tiny bit of notoriety and it’s my soapbox. Because of what I do professionally, people are interested in what I have to say on Twitter and it’s nice to be able to stand up for the things I believe in.
If he was attacking Reeves' right to "free speech" in the United States, Greg would have had to be the calling for government prosecution over her remarks. Read the first ammendment peoples!
Melissa must hate being in a show with a gay storyline, and having to be in the same room with a gay character.
Melissa played dumb over the whole situation. Her nobody friend came to her defense:
Gay advocate Crystal Chappell has come out to defend her former Days Of Our Lives co-star Melissa Reeves, following Reeves' controversial Twitter support of Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day. In a blog post entitled, "Missy", Chappell shared what happened when she contacted mutual gay and married friends of Reeves. Here's an excerpt:
I reached out to our gay (see, some of her best friends are gay) and married friends. Missy had called them in tears soon after the shit hit the fan. She told them how much she loved them and that the implication of that tweet was not what she intended. She said she saw half a tweet about Cluck Filet and thought she was supporting Free Speech. Nothing more. I thought...OK. Um....twitter fuck up? I've stepped into twitter convoys without really knowing what was being talked about and made a mess for myself unintentionally. Realizing after I stepped into it that I don’t at all support the person's words I stood up for. OK....it happens. And then I asked our gay and married friends...well, why not just say that to the folks in twitter land? Was someone telling her not to? Is it work related? Ostrich in the sand syndrome? If I don’t see it, it doesn’t exist kind of thing? Blonde moment? The more time went by the more frustrated I and my friends became. It started to hurt. We all know Missy has very strong religious beliefs but the person we know and love....is NOT a bigot.
Really? Reeves "thought she was supporting Free Speech. Nothing More"? So Reeves wasn't at all aware that Chick-fil-A is at the center of a heated, national gay rights debate, or that the reason Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day even existed was to support COO Dan Cathy, following his declaration in the press of support for "traditional marriage"? Sorry, but I cry foul with this explanation.
Gayblackcanada, Daytime Confidential
Nobody (okay, very few are) is protesting their right to donate their money wherever they want to. CFA could donate to the Klan if they wanted and that would be 100% legal.
Fucking sick of people who won't admit that they just find fucking FRIED CHICKEN more important than CIVIL RIGHTS pretending like it's some bizarre-ass issue about where private citizens donate.
I couldn't believe my eyes when I reading comments from members that refused to give up ChickFila.
yeah you can say whatever the fuck you want but that doesn't mean people shouldn't respond or actively reject what you're saying especially if you are trying to deny them rights that you have
since when are people not allowed to respond if someone says something?
Why does freedom of speech ALWAYS come up when people are called out on their shit?
I sincerely doubt she had genuine tears over her comments being taken the wrong way. She's just pissed that people called her out on it.
Basically, his argument was that CFA isn't the only place not supporting gay rights, protesting/boycotting doesn't work/isn't going to stop them and that I probably still use services that don't support gay rights.
I argued that now that we know their true colors that not supporting them by not buying from there that we have a resposibility to not patronize them if we disagree and brought up his hate of Walmart/refusal to use it.
It wasn't a huge argument really, just a calm & adult debate, but eh. I stil love him and am still really cool with him but moments like these he disappoints me, especially since he completely understands my point. If you understand, understand that you're wrong! XP
So many gay people still shop at Urban Outfitters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_Outf
Was there a post for this twitter fight?
Also, what kind of dumbass excuse
I'm all for not agreeing 100% on someone, but still siding with them. But you can't expect not to be seen as a bigot when that person is doing everything they can to promote bullying.
Same thing with Kelly Clarkson, she was agreeing with Romney in many things and got into fire with her gay fans. I don't think she is homophobic, far from it actually, but then it becomes a problem of priorities. And whatever she sees in him is more important than advancing human rights?
Is fried chicken that much better than stopping hate?
I cannot with the homophobia in my family.