Sixteen-year old international pop star Justin Bieber was called a “faggot” Friday night, during a public game of laser tag.
“Justin Bieber was on the receiving end of the kind of hate-filled bullying that has made headlines recently — during a laser tag match Friday night, he defended himself from an aggressive kid who referred to Bieber as a “faggot” … sources close to the investigation tell TMZ.
“We’re told that during the game of laser tag, one kid went out of his way to target Justin repeatedly (a violation of the code of honor of laser tag, if there is such a thing).
“Sources say that Bieber became frustrated when the kid cornered him and wouldn’t stop shooting and when Bieber told him, “That’s enough” … the kid responded, “What are you gonna do about it, faggot?”
“We’re told a shocked Bieber replied, “Excuse me?” Sources say the other kid responded, “You’re a faggot” and then put his hand out toward Bieber and Bieber pushed it away as he left.
“Contrary to several news reports, we’re told Bieber never struck the other boy.”
But now, Bieber is fighting back –
“Bieber is telling friends he had no idea how hurtful these comments could be — but even though he’s a straight teenager, he now wants to take a stand against bullying and homophobia.
“We’re told Bieber will be going public — probably within the next week — to lend his support to the anti-bullying campaign.”
Of course, contrary to Perez Hilton’s pledge to stop bullying celebrities, without all the facts, Perez felt it appropriate to literally label Bieber “not cool.”
Via Perez Hilton
Last week, Perez Hilton said, “I’m going to do things differently on my website than I have in the past. I’m not going to call people nasty nicknames. I’m not going to go the mean route. I’m going to force myself to be funnier or smarter.”
So much for that…
{ 4 comments }
Bieber has to experience name-calling before he can empathize with others then will take a week to have someone craft a statement that makes him appear not gay. Yeah, you so get this, Bieber.
Are you serious? The kid takes a public stand against a serious issue and you're going to slap him away because you view him as privileged and out of touch?
"We’re told Bieber will be going public — probably within the next week — to lend his support to the anti-bullying campaign."
There's an awful lot that could entail, not just a prepared statement. I'm not a Bieber fan at all, but he's trying to do a good thing here. How many straight celebrities actively stand up for gay rights, especially at such a young age?
"Slap him away" – no.
Privileged? How did you infer that?
Out of touch? Why does it take being called a fag_got to begin to have empathy with gay people? Hearing about kids his age and younger committing suicide from true bullying somehow just didn't quite do the job to yank his chain, I guess.
Privileged was a poor choice of words. I was more trying to discern where you felt his earlier apathy stemmed from.
And maybe because it hadn't affected him personally before, he hadn't ever thought to make an issue of it. I'm willing to bet that, sadly, most of this world doesn't have any direct empathy for bullied children, either because they haven't been bullied or don't know anyone affected by it.
He's still a kid! When I was that age, I didn't give a whit about bullies. I sat through the tolerance and bullying videos with glazed eyes like all my classmates. It was a faraway thing to me. It took one of my friends taking his own life my senior year of high school after being in such a state to realize what really went on. It means a hell of a lot more to me now, especially after I matured.
It would be nice if everyone realized from birth what words can do to people. Unfortunately, that's just not human nature, and many adults don't feel the need to teach their children better.
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