Kevin Hart Apologizes to the LGBTQ Community 'Once Again' for His Hurtful Past Comments
Kevin Hart is reaching out to the LGBTQ community and apologizing once more.
The Upside actor, 39, extended the apology on his SiriusXM radio show Straight from The Hart, which airs on Monday night.
Hart, who stepped down from his Oscars hosting gig after past homophobic tweets of his resurfaced, said, “Once again, Kevin Hart apologizes for his remarks that hurt members of the LGBTQ community. I apologize.”
The father of three explained he had revisited his offensive tweets and his comedy set on his 2010 comedy special Seriously Funny in which he also made homophobic jokes.
“We thought it was okay to talk like that [in the past], because that’s how we talked to one another,” Hart explained. “In that, you go f—. This is wrong now. Because now we’re in a space where I’m around people of the LGBTQ community, and I’m now aware of how these words make them feel, and why they say ‘That s– hurt because of what I’ve been through.'”
He continued, “So then we say, ‘Hey, man, as a group, let’s erase this s–. We don’t talk like this no more. Hey, let’s not do this. We don’t post this s– on social media.'”
Hart then promised he was “going to make sure that I don’t do anything else offensive [in comedy] because I talked to some friends of mine” who had given him their point of view.
The star shared he understood what he had previously written was hurtful to those who read them.
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“I’m not debating right from wrong. I’ve already stated it’s wrong. But, the other side of it is this: If the fight from the LGBTQ community is equality, that’s the fight,” he explained. “The fight is the will and want for equality. I’m riding with you guys. I understand you. But in the fight for equality, that means that there has to be an acceptance for change.”
He continued, “If you don’t want to accept people for their change, then where are you trying to get to the equal part? Where does the equality part come in? Because all of the people that have done wrong are the people that — you want their attention to say, ‘This is why we want you to change, so we don’t feel the way that we feel.’ And those people go ‘S—. I used to f—— be this way, guys, I’m not anymore. I’m sorry.’ But then they go, ‘But you didn’t say it right. Saying, ‘I’m sorry,’ you didn’t say ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry.’ But no, wait, guys, I just said ‘I’m sorry.’ ‘Not the way you should have! What does that mean?’ And then they break down the way things should be said.”
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Hart equated the response he received even after apologizing as a form a “bullying,” saying, “And now it turns into, you’re bullying them because now, now that I said what I said the way that I would say it because I’m me, you’re now trying to change me into becoming what version of me you want me to be.”
He added, “I don’t think it’s wrong for people to have their own personal beliefs. I think that in the times that we’re living in, we have to be understanding and accepting of people and change. Bottom line.”
The comedian appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show last week where he addressed the backlash to his tweets, calling it “a malicious attack” to end his career.
“It was an attack,” Hart told DeGeneres. “This wasn’t an accident, this wasn’t a coincidence. It wasn’t a coincidence that the day after I received the job, that tweets just somehow manifested from 2008. I don’t know who follows me or who doesn’t, but I’m on social media every single day. I have over 40,000 tweets. To go through 40,000 tweets to get back to 2008? That’s an attack. That’s a malicious attack on my character.”
The Night School star later said he would reassess his decision to walk away from the hosting job. “This is a conversation I needed to have, I’m glad that I had it here, and I’m glad that it was as authentic and real as I could have hoped that it would be,” he said. “So let me assess, just to sit in this space and really think, and you and I will talk before anything else.”
Hart’s sit down with DeGeneres comes as PEOPLE exclusively revealed that the Academy is open to having Hart host this year.
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“There has been a steady stream of buzz that things might work out between Kevin and the Academy,” the source told PEOPLE. “The Academy never really axed him — they wanted him to apologize — he wouldn’t, and then he was the one to drop out.”
The source explained Hart is now “making the rounds,” apologizing publicly on a number of talk shows, including Ellen. “It’s all they ever wanted him to do, and he’s doing it in spades. So now he should be able to come back on his own terms,” the insider told PEOPLE.