BET not a friend of gays?

UPDATED 2/18/10: It is a shame that BET never felt the need to even attempt a response, whether negative or positive. BUT, I am very please that thanks to Twitter I was able to personally express my disappointment to Anthony. I was truly appreciative to receive a response. Actually, I simply posted a public tweet mentioning him. What I really took as a sign of respect is his direct message back, instead of a public reply on his twitter page. This came across as a sincere apology instead of simply an attempt to save face. This is why I felt the need to update my blog and return that respect.

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BET recently premiered a show called "Brothers to Brutha" which centers around 5 young brothers and their singing group. On this weeks episode the youngest brother, Anthony, made a comment about one of his older brothers, Grady, dancing like a homosexual. Grady, out of anger then assaulted Anthony. This angered me in two ways; the fact that "homosexual" was used as a derogatory term, and that it was received as such a horrible label that one would attack his own brother. This angered me enough to log into BET's website to post a comment about this. However, I was confronted with a survey pertaining to this exact issue. But, instead of BET questioning the usage of this word, they asked if Anthony should have guestioned Grady's manhood. Basically inferring being gay somehow negates being a man. I no longer felt commenting on that site would be effective since BET obviously views gays in a negative way and would pay no attention to our concerns. This worries me since the group, and the show, is meant to appeal to younger viewers and this is not the example we need to set for them. We are already trying to stop the usage of the phrase "that is so gay" and this politically correct version is more offensive since it is a pointed and deliberate attempt to avoid any confusion over the intended offense. We, as a nation, are finally making huge strides forward to eliminate the years of prejudices already in place. This is being done in large part to a younger, more diverse, population that does not view homosexuality as wrong, or not being normal. Having a media outlet with such trendsetting capabilities like BET allow, and promote, such hatred is unacceptable and we must do something to let BET know will will not allow them to promote hatred.