Arts & Entertainment
Kevin Hart steps aside as 2019 Oscar host after protests
In the age of #MeToo, a controversial host is toast
Kevin Hart. (Photo Facebook)
UPDATE: Comedian and actor Kevin Hart says he has stepped down from hosting the 2019 Oscars following a controversy over homophobic tweets and comments from his stand up act from as far back as 2009.
Hart said he does not wish to be a distraction and that he is “sorry he had hurt people” after calls for the Academy to drop him went viral.
Hart had said hosting the Oscars was “a goal on my list for a long time.”
On Thursday, Hart initially responded to outcry over his being named by the Academy as host of the ceremony with a video posted on Instagram, in which he said, “Guys, I’m nearly 40 years old. If you don’t believe that people change, grow, evolve as they get older, I don’t know what to tell you. If you want to hold people in a position where they always have to justify the past, do you. I’m the wrong guy, man.”
This was followed later on Thursday evening with another video, in which the comedian told followers the Academy had called him and offered him an ultimatum: apologize for the tweets or step down as host. He refused to apologize, saying he had “addressed this several times. This is not the first time this has come up. I’ve addressed it. I’ve spoken on it.”
Finally, late in the day, Hart announced via Twitter that he had chosen to step down “because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists.”
“I sincerely apologise to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words of the past,” he said.
I’m sorry that I hurt people.. I am evolving and want to continue to do so. My goal is to bring people together not tear us apart. Much love & appreciation to the Academy. I hope we can meet again.
— Kevin Hart (@KevinHart4real) December 7, 2018
As its much-criticized (and now recanted) decision to add a “Best Popular Film” category to its awards roster earlier this year clearly revealed, the Oscars are desperate to increase their ever-declining ratings.
Has the Academy Award lost its way? That question is increasingly being asked.
For the broadcast of the Academy Awards’ 90th annual ceremony in 2018, viewership was about 26.5 million people – around 20% lower than the previous year, it was the first time the figure had dropped below 30 million and the lowest number since Nielsen started tracking Oscar ratings in 1974.
The Hart fiasco was born of a reckless effort to boost its relevance and regain audience.
At first glance, it seemed like the perfect solution to their problem. Hart is immensely popular, performing to sell-out crowds in huge venues like the 69,000-seat Lincoln Financial Field in his hometown of Philadelphia. He topped Forbes’ 2016 list of the highest-paid comedians, and he’s proven his appeal to movie crowds with box-office hits, like this year’s “Night School” and “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.”
His films have grossed $3.5 billion worldwide, and his social media presence (35 million followers on Twitter, 65 million on Instagram) is impressive. The chance to see what he does as an Oscar host obviously had the potential to draw a lot of viewers that wouldn’t normally tune in.
In addition, Hart had been vocal about his desire to host the Oscars for several years now.
It’s a job that has proven thankless for many celebrities who have done it in the past – from Chevy Chase to David Letterman to Seth McFarlane, the ceremony has been fronted by a long list of popular comedians who were deemed to have failed spectacularly, and there’s an even longer list of personalities who have been asked and turned it down (as detailed in a recent piece by the Hollywood Reporter).
But Hart had actively been after the gig since at least 2015, when the Los Angeles Times reported him as saying, “If I can start the campaign now and get them into it, I’m all for it. I would just jump at the opportunity.”
Lastly, as only the fourth African-American person ever to host the ceremony (following Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, and four-time host Whoopi Goldberg), Hart would potentially have helped to smooth over the lingering criticism stemming from the #OscarsSoWhite controversy of two years ago, when the lack of diversity among the Academy’s award nominations – and onstage at its ceremony – underscored the inadequate representation of non-whites within the content produced by the Hollywood film industry. In a year when most of the apparent front-runners seem, yet again, to be white, having a black host might be a way to stave off any resurgence of backlash.
Unfortunately, this solution failed to take into account the messaging it sent on another front.
The Academy – in typically tone-deaf fashion – may have chosen a host who checks off several important boxes for image-conscious Hollywood, but in doing so it ignored Hart’s problematic history of homophobia.
And as you can see from the Instagram post above, Hart is now positioning himself as a victim of PC culture run amok.
It’s not all that different from the notorious comedy routine for his 2010 TV special, “Seriously Funny,” Hart joked that as a parent, “one of my biggest fears is my son growing up and being gay.” After quickly adding that he had “nothing against gay people,” he went on to say that “as a heterosexual male, if I can prevent my son from being gay, I will.” He went on to joke that every kid has a “gay moment… but when it happens, you gotta nip it in the bud.”
In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, Hart confessed that he “wouldn’t tell the joke today.” His reasons, however, had nothing to do with the obvious anti-gay bias involved; instead, he deflected by saying, “the times weren’t as sensitive as they are now. I think we love to make big deals out of things that aren’t necessarily big deals, because we can. These things become public spectacles. So why set yourself up for failure?”
He also responded in an interview with Parade, by saying, “I had one gay joke in my career and it was about my son at a birthday party, and it was before things got as PC as they are now.”
In other words, his only remorse was over how it affected his image.
Blaming the current #MeToo movement for creating this atmosphere is not a show of remorse. Neither is saying it’s something he’s sorry about while he keeps doing it.
Apparently, that remorse has not been strong enough to keep him from making more homophobic comments. His Twitter feed has been laced with them throughout his career – things like “Yo if my son comes home & try’s 2 play with my daughter’s doll house I’m going 2 break it over his head % say n my voice ‘stop that’s gay.’”
In one particularly offensive tweet, he called out another Twitter user by saying their profile picture looked “like a gay billboard for AIDS.”
He has repeatedly used phrases like “no homo” and “no homo gay,” and lambasted his critics by calling them such names as “f*g boy,” “gay face,” “fat faced f*g,” and “man bitch.”
According to an article published by Queerty just this morning, Hart had been deleting many of these posts – most of which had already been re-Tweeted in protest by thousands of Twitter users after news broke of his Oscar gig.
There’s also the matter of his treatment of ex-wife Torrei Hart, to whom he admitted being physically abusive in his 2017 memoir, “I Can’t Make This Up.” He also confessed in a radio interview last year to having cheated on his current wife, Eniko Parrish, just a few months earlier – while she was pregnant.
With LGBTQ-focused films like “Boy Erased” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” predicted to be in the running, as well as “A Star Is Born,” which features gay icon Lady Gaga, this year’s Oscars are shaping up to have a strong queer presence. With this in mind, placing Hart in the center of the proceedings – when his long track record of homophobic remarks was already well-documented and should have been taken into account by the Academy before offering him the job – was always a bad idea.
Whether or not the comedian really believes the homophobic viewpoints he has projected in his comedy – which, for the record, he has repeatedly insisted he does not – his selection as host sent a mixed message from the Academy to its membership and to its millions of avid followers, many of whom are either LGBTQ or allies.
It’s not the first time the organization has faced this issue. In 2011, Brett Ratner was forced to resign as producer of that year’s Oscar ceremony due to his record of homophobic slurs.
As for the Hart debacle, the Academy has yet to issue a statement.
Dining
Spark Social House to start serving alcohol
D.C.’s only ‘LGBTQ alcohol-free bar’ changes course
Washington, D.C.’s only LGBTQ alcohol-free bar will lose that distinction in December: Spark Social House, located at the corner of 14th and U streets, N.W., will no longer serve only booze-free drinks.
Spark Social, as it is commonly known, received significant media attention and accolades when it debuted in March. Opening in the beating heart of the LGBTQ community’s social scene, its doors stand next to other popular nightlife establishments, including Crush, Bunker, District Eagle, and Revolt (which opened after Spark Social). All of those other bars serve alcohol.
Spark maintained a separate identity, creating a “third space” for sober guests or those who did not wish to spend their evening in an alcohol-forward space. Owner Nick Tsusaki, a former bartender, opened Spark Social to fill a gap he saw in queer nightlife establishments that centered drinking. Instead, Spark was intended to be a convening bar. By day, it has served coffee and tea as a café for remote workers, meetings, and catch-ups. In the evening, the bar hosts a wide array of events, with DJs, dancing, drag queens, speakers, open mic nights, and stand-up comedy, movie showings, among other events.
At the bar, it served cans, bottles, and craft cocktails, as well as “wellness drinks” or functional beverages like mushroom elixirs, Kava, and kombucha. All of these are currently non-alcoholic. Currently, in November, the bar is serving seasonal morning drinks like toasted almond and French Toast lattes, plus non-alcoholic cocktails like a “Hottie Hottie” with non-alcoholic spiced rum, lemon, and maple butter; plus a maple espresso “martini” without liquor, which includes mushroom tinctures.
Spark Social, even in its short time in existence, won “Best DC Coffee Shop” in the 2025 Washington Blade annual poll.
Nevertheless, in early November, the Spark owners and leadership team hosted a town hall to share updates and hear directly from the community about the next chapter for Spark.
According to the bar’s Instagram posts, the town hall reviewed the intent and purpose behind the bar: to create a queer third space where people can connect, create, and feel at home.”
“After eight months as a fully non-alcoholic bar, we’ve learned that sobriety exists on a spectrum and inclusion means offering choice.”
To that end, in December, Spark’s offerings will evolve. Instead of serving only drinks without alcohol, there will be a new “1 for 1” menu in which every cocktail comes in two versions: booze and boozeless. While alcohol will be served, the bar owners insist that they remain committed to maintaining its welcoming and relaxed vibe.
In a separate post, Spark wrote that “Although this was not our intent when we started the business, after 6 months of operations we’ve made the difficult decision to change our business model so that we can keep providing this space to the community.”
They acknowledged that this pivot might have “come as a surprise,” and offered to received feedback to ensure that the bar’s initial objective of being a unique space could continue.
Alcohol will only be served at the bar in the evenings during the week, and all day during the weekend.
Tsusaki spoke to the Blade about the changes and offered these statements:
“When we opened, the goal was to create a queer third space where people could spark a connection, spark creativity, spark an idea — especially for folks looking for an alternative to the typical drinking environment,” Tsusaki said. “From day one, Spark has been about the vibe — a place where you can just exist, feel at home, and be surrounded by community without pressure or pretense. After eight months as a fully non-alcoholic space, we learned a lot about what people actually want from spaces like this. Most folks exist somewhere on a spectrum of sobriety — some are fully sober, some are sober-curious, some drink occasionally. We realized that if our mission is to bring people together, inclusion has to mean options for everyone.
“We had to face the financial reality of running a small independent space in D.C. The city has been hit hard — especially with reduced spending and recent federal layoffs — and it’s made things tough for hospitality businesses like ours. Adding alcohol helps make Spark sustainable so we can keep doing what we do: building community, creating jobs, and keeping this space alive for the long haul.
“We’re using this moment to make the space even better — enclosing the back patio so it’s usable year-round, upgrading our DJ booth and sound system, and making a few design tweaks that better reflect the energy and creativity Spark has always had.”
Photos
PHOTOS: Miss Gay Mid-Atlantic America
Victoria Bohmore crowned in regional pageant held at Freddie’s Beach Bar
The 2025 Miss Gay Mid-Atlantic America Pageant was held at Freddie’s Beach Bar in Arlington, Va. on Friday, Nov. 7. Victoria Bohmore was crowned the winner, with Lady Lords named first alternate. Bohmore and Lords both qualify to compete against the winners of the Miss Gay Maryland America Pageant as well as other state and regional title holders from across the nation at the Miss Gay America Pageant in January.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Books
A history of lesbian workarounds to build family
Fighting for the right to have and raise kids
‘Radical Family: Trailblazing Lesbian Moms Tell Their Stories’
Edited by Margaret Mooney
c.2025, Wisconsin Historical Society Press
$20/150 pages
You don’t have a white picket fence with an adorable gate.
The other parts of the American Dream – the house in the suburbs, a minivan, and a big backyard – may also be beyond your reach. You’ve never wanted the joyous husband-wife union, but the two-point-five kids? Yeah, maybe that’s possible. As in the new book “Radical Family,” edited by Margaret Mooney, it’s surely more so than it was in the past.
Once upon a time, if a lesbian wanted to raise a family, she had two basic options: pregnancy or adoption. That is, says Mooney, if she was willing to buck a hetero-centric society that said the former was “selfish, unnatural and radical” and the latter was often just simply not possible or even legal.
Undaunted, and very much wanting kids, many lesbians ignored the rules. They built “chains” of women who handed off sperm from donor to doctor to potential mother. They demanded that fertility clinics allow single women as customers. They wrote pamphlets and publications aimed to help others become pregnant by themselves or with partners. They carefully sought lesbian-friendly obstetricians and nurses.
Over time, lesbians who wanted kids were “emboldened by the feminist movement and the gay and lesbian rights movement” and did what they had to do, omitted facts when needed, traveled abroad when they could, and found workarounds to build a family.
This book tells nine stories of everyday lesbians who succeeded.
Denise Matyka and Margaret McMurray went to Russia to adopt. Martha Dixon Popp and Alix Olson raised their family, in part and for awhile in conjunction with Popp’s husband. Gail Hirn learned from an agriculture publication how to inseminate herself. MC Reisdorf literally stood on her head to get pregnant. Mooney says that, like most lesbian parents then, she became a mother “without any safety nets…”
Such “struggles likely will feel familiar as you read about [the] desire to become parents…” says Mooney. “In short, these families are ordinary and extraordinary all at once.”
In her introduction, editor Margaret Mooney points out that the stories in this book generally take place in the latter part of the last century, but that their relevance is in the struggles that could happen tomorrow. There’s urgency in those words, absolutely, and they’re tinged with fear, but don’t let them keep you from “Radical Family.”
What you’ll see inside these nine tales is mostly happy, mostly triumphant – and mostly Wisconsin-centric, though the variety in dream-fulfillment is wide enough that the book is appropriate anywhere. The determination leaps out of the pages here, and the storytellers don’t hide their struggles, not with former partners, bureaucracy, or with roadblocks. Reading this book is like attending a conference and hearing attendees tell their tales. Bonus: photos and advice for any lesbian thinking of parenthood, single or partnered.
If you’re in search of positive stories from lesbian mothers and the wall-busting they did, or if you’ve lived the same tales, this slim book is a joy to read. For you, “Radical Family” may open some gates.
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.
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