“We Must Recognise That Our Words Have Power.” Pamela Adie Offers Lessons To Be Learned From The Kevin Hart Oscar Mess | GLAAD Hoped It Would Be A “Teachable Moment”

Following Kevin Hart’s stepdown from being an Oscar host for the 2019 Academy Awards, an incidence that came after homophobic social media postings Hart made nearly a decade ago were resurrected and went viral, Pamela Adie has offered up some lessons we should all take note of as human beings, gay or straight.

Check out her tweets below.

Also, GLAAD wasn’t happy Kevin Hart stepped down as host of the Oscars, and its CEO took to CNN to say so.

The LGBTQ advocacy organization’s CEO/president Sarah Kate Ellis said she was surprised at the outcome that saw Hart step down as host of the upcoming Oscar, two days after confirming he’d been offered and accepted his dream job.

“This wasn’t the conclusion I think everyone would have liked,” Ellis told CNN’s Erica Hill.

“We were hoping this was going to turn into a teachable moment,” she said, “that Kevin Hart would still be hosting the Oscars and he would be using this moment to show, not only his evolution around the LGBTQ community, but also to then use the Oscar stage…to help build unity and awareness around the LGBTQ community and how we are marginalized in this country.”

“Whenever there are missed steps…like this, we see this as an opportunity to get the message out about acceptance for the LGBTQ community. This was just such a perfect opportunity.” She added that “it would have been so much better had he faced it and said this wasn’t good, and said he had ‘evolved from here and am an ally to the community and I am going to move forward and lead.’”

Sarah Kate Ellis

Ellis acknowledged she was surprised the Academy seemed not to have seen this coming when it picked Hart as Oscars host, but conceded the Academy “would have had to do due diligence to have found” the older social media posts and public remarks.

CNN’s Hill noted it only took a quick Google search to find some of them.

GLAAD followed up that interview issuing a statement, from Ellis:

“Kevin Hart shouldn’t have stepped down; he should have stepped up,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis. “Hart’s apology to LGBTQ people is an important step forward, but he missed a real opportunity to use his platform and the Oscars stage to build unity and awareness. We would still welcome that conversation with him. The Academy has recently made significant strides in featuring diverse talent onstage and they should now double down on that commitment as they look for a new host.”