Just Fire Isaiah Washington!

I think over the past year or so I've become much more vindictive about transgressions by people who do anti-gay acts. And at the moment, the target of that emotion is Isaiah Washington. He is the actor who plays Burke on Greys Anatomy.

In short, back in October he pitched a fit with another actor, Patrick Dempsey who play McDreamy. It was something to the effect that he wasn't his "faggot." This was in reference to T.R. Knight who was apparently late and Patrick wanted to wait until he arrive to begin filming. T.R. came out of the closet a week later, Isaiah issued an apology and supposedly everything was over and done with.

Then at the Globes ceremony, a reporter commented to his wife about some fashion being "that is so gay" whereby Isaiah responded with "I love gay. I wanted to be gay. Please let me be gay." I can only imagine that this was in sarcasm.

Later a reporter asked about the incident and Isaiah responded "I did not call T.R. a faggot. Never." This got under Katherine Heigl (Izzy) skin, made her mad, and she spoke up that he was wrong to deny it and pretend it didn't occur.

Then T.R. goes onto the Ellen Degeneres show. He tells her about the incident, that he was called a faggot and that is made his mind up to come out. At one point he said about being called a faggot "isn't that awesome?" Some sites reporting on this (notably AfterElton) say that he was joking. But what I saw was a mistake on his part, meaning to say "awful" instead, especially the way he turned away as he said it. (He seemed scared during the interview...is he new to the talk show circuit?)

ABC has issued a statement saying they do not condone this type of behaviour. Isaiah has issued another statement saying he is sorry. Shonda, the executive producer, hasn't really said much of substance. This time, I don't think it'll be easily swept under the carpet. GLAAD has weighed in and condemns it.

There are a lot of people out there screaming for Isaiah to be fired. You can count me in that crowd. From my point of view, it isn't so much what he said and how he acted. It is more that some examples are needed at the national level to show that we gays are tired of this shit. We are tired of continually facing harassment, discrimination and just plain bullshit. If we can bag a few scalps and make headlines from it, then all the better.

So, just fire him and be done with it!