Date: 11th October 2000

Schlessinger "Atones" For Comments About Gays


Dr. Laura Schlessinger has again attempted to defuse the controversy over her remarks about homosexuals, taking out a full-page ad in Variety expressing her regret for "the hurt this situation has caused the gay and lesbian community." Referring to the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday, which was observed on Monday Schlessinger, wrote in the ad, which appeared in a special issue of Variety on gay Hollywood: "On the Day of Atonement, Jews are commanded to seek forgiveness from the people we have hurt."

She further noted that her remarks about gays and lesbians were expressed "from the perspective of an Orthodox Jew and a staunch defender of the traditional family" but that some of them "were poorly chosen." (Among other remarks, she has reportedly called homosexual conduct "a violation of Scripture.") Joan M. Garry, executive director of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), dismissed Schlessinger's ad as "a qualified admission of some guilt."

Source: Studio Briefing