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Heartthrob actor Mel Gibson, asked by one of Spain’s leading magazines what he thinks of homosexuals, launched into a tirade against gay men "They take it up the ass," Gibson told El Pais as he got out of his chair, bent over and pointed to his butt. "This is only for taking a shit," he said.
Reminded by the interviewer, Koro Castellano, that he worked with gays while studying at the School of Dramatic Arts, Gibson added: "They were good people, kind, I like them. But their thing is not my thing." Castellano said, "But you were obsessed with the thought
that if you were an actor, people would confuse you with one of
them."
"Yes," Gibson admitted, "but I did it. I became an actor despite that. But with this look, who’s going to think I’m gay? It would be hard to take me for someone like that.
"Do I sound like a homosexual?" he asked. "Do I talk like them? Do I move like them?
"What happens is when you’re an actor, they stick that label on you," Gibson said. "I go from playing rugby one week to taking dance classes in black leotards the next. Many of the girls that I met in school took it for granted that I was gay."
Gibson’s holds extreme conservative views on other issues.
He has quit the Catholic Church because he believes the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s went too far.
"For 1,950 years [the church] does one thing and then in the 60s, all of a sudden they turn everything inside out and begin to do strange things that go against the rules," he explained to El Pais.
"Everything that had been heresy is no longer heresy, according to the [new] rules. We [Catholics] are being cheated. The church has stopped being critical. It has relaxed. I don’t believe them, and I have no intention of following their trends.
"It’s the church that has abandoned me, not me who has abandoned it," he said.
Like the Catholic Church, Gibson opposes birth control, saying, "God is the only one who knows how many children wes hould have, and we should be ready to accept them."
The interview appeared in the magazine’s Dec. 1 1991 issue.
MEL GIBSON REFUSES TO APOLOGIZE TO GAYS
by Rex Wockner
Outlines News Service
(Article filed February 1992)
Actor Mel Gibson, speaking Jan. 21 on ABC-TV’s "Good Morning America," refused to apologize to gay men, who he ridiculed late last year in an interview with the Sunday magazine of Spain’s largest newspaper, El Pais.
"I don’t think there’s an apology necessary, and I’mcertainly not giving one," Gibson said. "[Those remarks were a response] to a direct question. If someone wants my opinion, I’ll give it. What, am I supposed to lie to them?
"The other thing is, it was translated from English to Spanish, back from Spanish to English, then used by [columnist]Liz Smith [who received the story from this reporter] out ofcontext in her article," Gibson said. "It’s old news, really old news."
The Spanish-to-English translation was done by this reporter, who speaks Spanish, and by a professional translatorwho emigrated from Cuba.
The "Good Morning America" interviewer pressed Gibson, "Are you saying to me that you did not make any anti-gay statements at all?"
Gibson responded: "I didn’t lie. Put it that way…. Liz Smith seems to be violating my right to have an opinion. I have a right to an opinion."
Robert Bray, spokesman for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, was livid at Gibson’s new statements.
"And I have a right to respond to Mel Gibson’s anti-gay defamation," Bray said. "He can kiss my queer ass. He can’t defame gays and then try to wiggle out of it by blaming the translation. And he’s not even denying he made the statements. He’s saying he has a right to his opinion.
"Gay fans of Mel Gibson need to throw away their ‘Mad Max’ tapes and stop going to his movies until he stops defaming gay people," Bray said.
Queer Resources Directory
I knew when he bad mouthed Jews, that with his religious beliefs he most likely had said something about homosexuality too. I was right.
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The sheriff’s deputy who arrested Mel Gibson for drunken driving said in an interview that he feels bad for damage to the star’s reputation but hopes Gibson thinks twice before drinking and driving. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy James Mee, who is Jewish, said that he considered it a routine arrest and did not take any comments made by Gibson seriously. "I don’t take pride in hurting Mr. Gibson," said Mee, a 17-year deputy. "What I had hoped out of this is that he would think twice before he gets behind the wheel of a car and was drinking. That would be my hope that this would accomplish that. I don’t want to ruin his career. I don’t want to defame him in any way or hurt him." The Sheriff’s Department sent prosecutors its case Monday, including an official police report that includes claims that Gibson made anti-Semitic remarks and threatened a deputy, a law enforcement official said. Gibson reportedly unleashed an anti-Semitic tirade and made other offensive comments when he was pulled over, initially for speeding, early Friday in Malibu, California, and was then arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. An arrest report signed by Mee and posted on the celebrity news Web site TMZ quoted Gibson as saying, "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," and asked the arresting officer, "Are you a Jew?" Deputy Mee would not comment specifically on Gibson’s remarks. "That stuff is booze talking," the deputy said in an interview outside his home. "There’s two things that booze does. It amplifies your basic personality. If you are a laid-back kind of person, just an easy going kind of person, booze is going to amplify that and you’ll be just sitting around going how it’s a wonderful day. "But, if you are high-strung person, it’s going to amplify that and all the bad things are going to come out."
