Perez Hilton finally says hes sorry for using gay slur

In his third public response to the massive media storm surrounding Perez calling Will.i.am a f*g and getting hit in the head by someone else for it, Perez Hilton has finally used the “S” word. He says it a bunch of times in a new statement that includes line breaks for once and seems to be about something other than Perez being a sad sack of self-pity:

People make mistakes. I have made many in my life, but this past week I have made more than I can count on one hand.

I am sorry. And I mean it. No one is forcing me to write this. I am not feeling pressured to say this. I am speaking out because I realize that the last few days have been more hurtful to me – and many others – than the repeated blows I suffered to my head in Toronto this past weekend.

I have been filled with incredible sadness and regret.

I am sorry that any good work I have done for promoting equality may be tainted by me reclaiming a hurtful word – that’s been personally used against me and the gay community – to hurt someone that was verbally attacking me. It was stupid.

Apologizing for me is not easy. Writing this was not easy. Life is not easy. But everything happens for a reason and I will take away a lot of valuable lessons from this experience.

Violence is never the answer. Never.

Victims should not be mocked.

The “F” word will never be uttered from my lips again. Just as others use the “N” word to insult and hurt – or as part of their everyday speech – I challenge them to remove it from their vocabulary as well.

Hindsight is always 20/20, they say. I should have been the bigger man and walked away from an unfortunate situation. Instead, I chose – in a very misguided way – to stand up for myself and only made things worse by how I – under pressure, anger and extreme emotion – handled the situation.

I am sorry.

I am NOT apologizing to GLAAD. I could care less about them, my former employers.

I am apologizing to the gay community, to anyone who was hurt by my choice of words, and to all the people who have ever emailed me to thank me for all that I have done to fight for gay rights over the last few years.

I have reached out to Isaiah Washington, someone I incorrectly labeled a homophobe in the past, despite his own public statements that he was not.

I will be donating any money collected from my lawsuit against Polo Molina, road manager for the Black Eyed Peas, to the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

And I will continue to speak out for equality and support the great work done by LGBT organizations, such as LAMBDA Legal and HRC.

Sincerely,

Perez

[From Perez Hilton.com]

So is Perez truly, genuinely sorry or is he really responding to the media pressure that he so vehemently denies? I would venture that he didn’t come to some gradual revelation that it’s not all about him and the minor injury he sustained, which found him turning to his Sidekick to immediately tweet and contact his lawyer instead of going to a hospital. (Healthcare is super affordable in Canada for non-residents so he has no excuse.) If he was truly sorry, he would let bygones be bygones and drop that lawsuit. No one should have raised a fist to him but he shouldn’t have called Will a “thug” and the f word.

Get over yourself, Perez. It sucks to get beat up and no one deserves it but you’re not unique and you did some provocative obnoxious things. Be nice and normal for once, write some of your own damn stories and credit the other writers who work for you instead of making it seem like you’re still running your site. It’s pretty easy to add author names automatically to posts.

Perez isn’t going to change, though, even if he finally realized the sort-of right things to write for once. It’s all about him, his rude brand and how he was wronged. I took a small business class a few years ago and the teacher warned us not to name our businesses after ourselves. He said something like “it’s not about you, it’s about what you offer to your customers.” What does Perez offer? At least he said he was sorry, and he said it the right way. Do you think he dragged it out just to get more publicity?

Photos are from 4/18, 4/19 and 4/22/09. Credit: PRPhotos.com

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