The Matthew Shepard Foundation has refused a proposed donation from Perez Hilton:
STATEMENT FROM MATTHEW SHEPARD FOUNDATION REGARDING PEREZHILTON.COM
The Matthew Shepard Foundation was surprised to learn this morning via media reports that blogger Perez Hilton (Mario Lavandeira) has announced he plans to donate, to our organization, the proceeds of a lawsuit he is contesting over an altercation which has been widely reported in recent days.
We had no advance notice or contact from Mr. Hilton or his representatives regarding this proposal, nor any communication since he posted this plan to his website.
We do not know the details of the lawsuit, whether it has been filed, the nature of his claims or the likely outcome. But because the lawsuit presumably involves the physical attack prompted by Mr. Hilton’s admitted use of an anti-gay slur, the Foundation will be unable to accept any funds obtained in such a manner.
We very much appreciate the generosity of the offer to support our continuing work to memorialize Matthew through activism in defense of sexual minorities and in favor of understanding, compassion, and acceptance. But because so much of our work involves education to reduce the use of hateful language against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons, or those so perceived, it would be inappropriate for us to benefit financially from circumstances in which such a verbal attack was involved.
While we applaud Mr. Hilton’s apology to the LGBT community and their loved ones for his use of such a slur, we also feel compelled to point out that use of epithets can often lead to physical violence, as it appears it may have in this case, and that the Matthew Shepard Foundation has worked for more than 10 years to bring to people’s attention the consequences of hateful or intolerant language.
Holy shut down! You know you’ve been bad when charities don’t want your money.
Perez is totally wrong if he compares himself to Mathew Shepard.
Perez Hilton was not gay bashed, Perez Hilton was bitch slapped! Don’t FUCK with Fergie!
I feel that you have to be careful what you say. I felt very offended that he used such language in a world, were we struggle to fight the hate and slurs of those who are gay.Even if the guy is gay who is he to put that man out like that, he was not right and should know better.
That is superb. Mario Lavandeira is totally king of the douchebags.
LMAO Perez gets what he deserves, he gets to me at times thinking he can get away with calling people names and what not actually I started hitting other sites for news cus he can be so negative at times…well all the time