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Celebrity blogger and openly gay Perez Hilton has invited controversies and a fair amount of criticisms after declaring in a podcast last week that he won’t let his five-year-old son attend dance classes for fear that the boy might turn out gay also.

Hilton said he wouldn’t allow son Mario to learn to dance because it might “influence” his sexuality. Hilton even elaborated and said: “I’m not going to put a number on it, but I would say a good amount-maybe like 50 percent or more- of little boys who take dance class end up being gay.”

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He defended his claims, even though there’s no solid or direct study that says so as he added: “ I don’t think it’s a homophobic thing to say. Just like I don’t think it’s a homophobic thing to say that a disproportionate amount of male singers/actors/dancers on Broadway are gay. There are more gay men drawn to that profession.” He concluded: “That’s not homophobic, that’s just a fact.”

Hilton’s comments about dance possibly making his son gay received strong backlash especially from social media.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">How dumb is this? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/speechless?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#speechless</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZaIMw6AqjL">https://t.co/ZaIMw6AqjL</a></p>— Matthew Bourne (@SirMattBourne) <a href="https://twitter.com/SirMattBourne/status/981237539179646976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Perez Hilton proving, yet again, that he is an attention seeking moron. <a href="https://t.co/ZmNJMxNovl">https://t.co/ZmNJMxNovl</a></p>— Joel Cooper (@Joel_Coop) <a href="https://twitter.com/Joel_Coop/status/981243842019188736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">For those surprised by <a href="https://twitter.com/PerezHilton?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PerezHilton</a>’s homophobic comments, why?<br><br>I invite you to travel back in time with me to 2011. Jennifer Aniston confronted him in a parking garage, correctly calling him a bully.<br><br>He went on Ellen promising to change. <br><br>He didn’t. <a href="https://t.co/spoZOCL0NF">https://t.co/spoZOCL0NF</a></p>— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) <a href="https://twitter.com/Spacekatgal/status/981244188716163072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">PSA: Letting your 5-year-old son take dance lessons won't turn him gay Mr. Perez Hilton <a href="https://t.co/bqxDJerJi4">https://t.co/bqxDJerJi4</a></p>— Broward Gator (@BrowardGator) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrowardGator/status/981221836297003008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The 40-year-old blogger tried to defend his decision of discouraging his young son to take up dancing because as a father he thinks that is “best for the future” and that he does not want to do anything that could potentially hurt his boy. He also said that he is sharing his thoughts even if it would mean symbolically “digging his grave even further.”

He later tried to do damage control given the storm his original message has triggered and came out with a Youtube video where he said he’d want his son to identify as straight because it is “easier.”

Hilton also said he is not ashamed of his sexuality, but admitted that being gay was a “harder road to travel on.”

The celebrity blogger who thrives on controversies involving other famous personalities in the past and who now finds himself oddly in the center of drama also tried to backtrack a bit on his earlier claims. He said in the follow-up video that while his son has not brought up taking dance lessons yet, “if he begged and pleaded” and he saw that such would make his kid happy, then he would let him do his thing.

Hilton also said that he would continue to love his son, whether he turns out gay, transgender, or whatever, and that he would continue to support him unconditionally.

He revealed, however, that he has signed his son for tennis lessons, and blurted out “gays do tennis, but it’s not something I think: ‘oh yeah, no I’m gonna have him in tights and ballet shoes.”

Source:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/perez-hilton-dance-class-ban-son-gay-a8286956.html