Nigel Lythgoe is Sorry

Nigel Lythgoe issued a formal apology for his homophobic remarks in the So You Think You Can Dance premier. Lythgoe stated:

"I sincerely regret the fact that I have upset people with the poor word choices and comments I made both during the taping of the So You Think You Can Dance audition and on my personal status update," said Lythgoe. "I am not homophobic and it was extremely upsetting for me to be classed as such."

"I believe the sexual orientation of an auditioner or contestant is irrelevant. The fact that I have unintentionally upset people is distressing to me and it is obvious I have made mistakes that I must learn from. I trust that my humor will be more sensitive and mindful moving forward."

GLAAD president, Neil Giuliano, has acknowledged the apology, saying:

"We certainly appreciate the dialogue and the opportunity for Nigel to help further educate people about how words and images matter," said Giuliano. "His sincere words are appreciated."

It's a shame that it took him so long to take responsibility for his idiocy, but better late than never. Let's hope this is the last of it. However, I just finally watched the clip (below the cut if you're interested) and the comments were worse than I thought. The other judges weren't much better than Lythgoe, but there was a twist I wasn't expecting - one of the dancers was straight.




Lythgoe was undoubtably the worst of the bunch with his comments, but I'd like to see the other judges apologize as well. They were blatantly reinforcing rigid gender role stereotypes and I have absolutely no doubt after watching this that they were cut from the competition for their choice of dance partners rather than anything to do with talent.