Monday, April 02, 2007

Terry McMillan, Making an Ass of Herself



One would think that the generous passage of Time might be tonic to Terry McMillan's Hell-Hath-No-Fury. The African-American novelist broke up with her husband Jonathan Plummer after it was revealed that he was gay. Frankly, how anyone could believe Plummer was straight is astonishing to our impeccable gaydar, but, c'est la vie.

Meanwhile, Terry just will not let go. The whole debacle has veered from sad to, unfortunately, bigoted in the first degree. Remember when years ago McMillan threatened to "(take) this lamp and bashing it in your face" on Oprah? Mm-hmm. It gets worse. Much worse. From NYMag:

"Late last month novelist Terry McMillan, best known for bringing Stella her groove back and perhaps second best known for elegantly calling her now-ex-husband a 'little fag' after he told her he was gay, filed a $40 million suit against the ex-husband, Jonathan Plummer, alleging a conspiracy to destroy her reputation. (Presumably by mentioning things like that she called him a 'little fag' and also 'a common fucking criminal, a common extortionist.') Meantime, McMillan hasn't exactly salvaged her rep by publishing an essay, '100 Questions I Meant to Ask Him,' in the anthology The Honeymoon's Over, which includes questions like "Have you been surprised by the promiscuous behavior of a lot of gay men? Are you going to be like this or are you already?' New York rang up McMillan the other day to see how the novelist is continuing to protect her reputation. It's tough for her: 'If you criticize them, you're automatically a homophobe,' she said."

Not automatically, but several years of McMillan's gay bashing in the mainstream media is a good indicator.

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