Blake Shelton Must Apologize for Anti-Gay Comments

Update: You Spoke Out, and Blake Shelton Listened: Country Singer Takes a Stand Against Anti-Gay Violence

Less than 24 hours after GLAAD, The Advocate, Joe My God and many others applauded NBC reality competiton The Voice for its inclusion of openly gay contestants, one of the show's judges took to Twitter and displayed some astoundingly bad judgement. Here's country singer and The Voice judge Blake Shelton, offering up his own take on the Shania Twain song "Any Man of Mine"- the original lyrics to which are; "Any man of mine better walk the line  - Better show me a teasin' squeezin' pleasin' kinda time."

Here's Blake's version:

Do you see what he did there? He turned Shania Twain's song into a joke about beating up gay men.

You know what else is funny? Brokeback Mountain jokes! Hey Blake, you have any of those?

All snarkiness aside, this is one of the judges on what's so far been one of the most gay-friendly reality shows on television. For him to make a joke to his 300-thousand-plus followers about leaving a gay man 'beaten, bleeding and heaving' is completely unacceptable.  One has to wonder how Shania feels about seeing her anthem about strong women and female empowerment turned into a violent threat. Blake Shelton is from Ada, Oklahoma - just a few hours south of where Phillip Nelson was robbed, assaulted and beaten last year. Nelson's crime? Being gay.

We have already called the show's producers asking them to take action. But right now, Blake Shelton needs to recognize that violence against the LGBT community is not a laughing matter, and he needs to apologize to his fans, and to fans of The Voice, for his comments. We sent Blake this tweet:

...and we are asking our supporters to do the same. Retweet this or write your own:
RT @glaad: No, @BlakeShelton - violent, anti-gay statements are not what a woman wants. Apologize now. #LGBT #gay #thevoice @NBCTheVoice