Perez Hilton Promises to ‘Be Nice’

Posted Tuesday, October 19, 2010 by Matt Comer

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  • Perez Hilton Promises to ‘Be Nice’
Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton at Toronto Fashion Week

SOURCE: Flickr / terfe

Hollywood blogger Perez Hilton at Toronto's 2009 Fashion Week. Hilton recently told Ellen DeGeneres' audience that he wants to change his old habits and start being nicer on his blog.

Ellen DeGeneres says she believes in “second chances,” and she gave gay Hollywood blogger Perez Hilton a chance to prove himself this week.

Known for his hostile commentary, including the use of not-so-appropriate language, slurs, and obscene doodles on celeb photos, Hilton told DeGeneres’ audience that he wants to change his old habits and start being nicer on his blog.

"Over the last two weeks I have been doing everything I can to bring awareness to the teen suicides and gay bullying," Hilton said on Wednesday. “In doing so a lot of people have called me a hypocrite and a bully myself and a big one. That’s not how I want to be perceived. That’s not what I want to put out there into the world. It was a big wake-up call that so many people saw me that way. From now on I really want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. I want to be the change that I want to see in others.”

Hilton committed to changing the way he operates his website. “I’m going to do things differently on my website than I have in the past. I’m not going to call people nasty nicknames. I’m not going to go the mean route. I’m going to force myself to be funnier or smarter, not doodle inappropriate things on photos, not out people, and I have done all those things in the past,” he said.

In 2009, Hilton came under intense media scrutiny, including criticism from some gay activists, when he called Miss USA contestant Carrie Prejean a “dumb bitch.” That comment was made after she responded to his question on the legalization of marriage for same-sex couples. Hilton has routinely claimed several celebrities are gay. He also outed actor Neil Patrick Harris and singer Lance Bass months before they voluntarily acknowledged their sexual orientations publicly.

The controversy over “outing,” or the forced public acknowledgement that someone is LGBT, is not new and didn’t begin with Hilton. Political operatives and activists have also used outing for political gain. Washington, D.C.-based blogger Mike Rogers, for example, has used outing as a tool to expose hypocrisy on LGBT issues among closeted, anti-gay elected officials. Rogers’ most famous outing incidents, including former U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, former New York City Mayor Ed Koch and U.S. Rep. David Dreier, were featured in the 2009 Kirby Dick documentary Outrage.

The practice of outing, whether for entertainment or political purposes, has been controversial even among LGBT people. Dan Gurley, a former Republican National Committee field director who was “outed” by Rogers and who now serves as chair of Equality North Carolina’s board, has said he was already out to many colleagues when Rogers reported on him.

In a 2009 NPR interview, Rogers credited his blogging for Gurley’s present work with an LGBT advocacy organization, an assertion Gurley denied.

“Well, I think that, first of all, when you discuss outing that the thing you have to keep in mind is that like many other areas of public life and private life, this is not clearly a black or white issue,” Gurley told “Fresh Air” host Terry Gross. “There's lot of grey area. I'm doing what I'm doing now in my role with Equality North Carolina because I believed it was the right thing to do and not specifically because of the experience that I went through with Rogers or with blogging.”

Matt Comer is a staff writer for Campus Progress.

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