Wendy Williams Apologizes After Slamming Gay Men For 'Wearing Skirts'

Wendy Williams caused a stir last week after going on an offensive tirade against gay men on her talk show. Now, she’s apologizing, but to some, it’s falling flat.

The incident began with Williams asking her audience who among them was going to be celebrating Galentine’s Day, the February 13th friend version of V-Day. The audience predictably clapped and cheered, but Williams took issue with some of the men joining in on the supportive response.

“First of all, if you’re a man and you’re clapping, you’re not even a part of this,” she said. “I don’t care if you’re gay… You can do a lot that we do, but I get offended by the idea that we go through something you will never go through. And stop wearing our skirts and our heels. Girls, what do we have for ourselves? You’ll never be the women that we are, no matter how gay.”

Woof, where to start.

It didn’t take long for Williams to get blasted for her misguided idea that gay men are trying to be women, along with her declaration that they shouldn’t be wearing clothes that society deems feminine. All in all, it was a bizarre take on a fake holiday that, at its core, is about celebrating friendship.

Williams responded to the backlash yesterday, saying that she was sorry and “did not mean to offend [her] LGBTQ+ community.”

She stumbled over a confusingly unnecessary explanation about coming home to rewatch the show that day before saying that she never does a show “from a place of malice.” She then outlined her career trajectory over the decades for some reason before tearfully continuing:

“I didn’t mean to hurt anybody’s feelings. I’m just trying to have a conversation. If you know me long enough, then you know, bon vivant…I don’t even know what that means, but it sounds fabulous. In my mind, it means ‘live and let live.”

(It does not.)

Williams then brought up her age, claiming that she’s not out of touch, “except for perhaps yesterday by saying what I said. So I deeply apologize, and I deeply appreciate the support that I get from the community. I will do better.”

As NewNowNext’s Lester Fabian Brathwaite points out in an article examining Williams' "allyship," this is far from Williams’ first brush with accusations of homophobia (or transphobia). Not to mention that time she got super offended when an article suggested she was friends with a lesbian, because she took that to mean they thought she was a lesbian, or something equally ridiculous.

But hopefully all the men in Williams' audience who chose to celebrate Galentine's Day had a wonderful time.