Alec Baldwin Apologizes for Using Gay Slurs

Baldwin gave a statement to GLAAD in regards to his recent Twitter rant.

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    "As someone who fights against homophobia, I apologize," the actor said.

    Alec Baldwin had some cleaning up to do after spewing vitriol all over Twitter last night.

    The 30 Rock star, who deleted his entire Twitter account after going off on a Daily Mail writer who reported that Baldwin's wife, Hilaria, was tweeting "upbeat posts" during James Gandolfini's funeral, has issued an apology for making anti-gay remarks in his captured-in-screengrabs rant.

    In the tweets in question, Baldwin called reporter George Stark a "toxic little queen," repeatedly referred to him as a "little b***h" and threatened to "f**k [him] up."

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    A cooler head seemed to prevail Friday.

    "My ill-advised attack on George Stark of the Daily Mail had absolutely nothing to do with issues of anyone's sexual orientation," Baldwin said in a statement to GLAAD.

    "My anger was directed at Mr. Stark for blatantly lying and disseminating libelous information about my wife and her conduct at our friend's funeral service. As someone who fights against homophobia, I apologize."

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    "I have worked, periodically, with numerous marriage equality organizations, especially over the past couple of years, to achieve the very rights that gay couples are earning by recent court decisions. I would not advocate violence against someone for being gay and I hope that my friends at GLAAD and the gay community understand that my attack on Mr. Stark in no way was the result of homophobia. Many Thanks, Alec Baldwin."

    Both Baldwin and Hilaria blatantly denied that she had been tweeting mid-service for Gandolfini, stating that multiple witnesses saw that she had left her phone in the car.

    It also turned out that Stark didn't note the time difference and, in his article (which no longer exists on the Daily Mail's site), he failed to add three hours to the West Coast timestamps he saw on Hilaria's tweets to adjust them for East Coast time.

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    And while it's rather apparent that Baldwin still has a beef with Stark, or at least with what he wrote, GLAAD voiced appreciation for the actor's attempt to right his tweeted wrongs.

    "Alec Baldwin is making it clear that the intent behind his tweets does not excuse his language, especially at a time when there were 11 incidents of violence against gay men in New York City just last month," said Rich Ferraro, GLAAD's VP of communications. "As we all work to end such senseless acts of violence, allies like Baldwin are right to use these moments to reinforce support for the community and LGBT equality."

    The Emmy winner also sought to clear the air earlier today in a chat with Gothamist.

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    "The idea of me calling this guy a 'queen' and that being something that people thought is homophobic... a queen to me has a different meaning," Baldwin said. "It's somebody who's just above. It doesn't have any necessarily sexual connotations... I know women that act queeny, I know men that are straight that act queeny, and I know gay men that act queeny. It doesn't have to be a definite sexual connotation, or a homophobic connotation. To me those are people who think the rules don't apply to them."

    "I'm not interested in offending anyone," he said. "If homosexuality was an issue for me, I would have moved out of New York years ago. I find that laughable."

    Told by Gothamist that The Dish's Andrew Sullivan was classifying Baldwin's rant as "not just hate speech" but also a "specific call" for violence against a gay man, Baldwin responded, "I don't think it's a call for violence against a specific person because they're gay, it's a call for violence against a person who lied about my wife."

    He and Hilaria were also spotted leaving their NYC apartment building with luggage today--a perfectly timed weekend getaway if there ever was one.

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