All That Remains: There's no reason for anyone to worry about 'faggot'

All That Remains, very much the part of the late-era dwindling Limp Bizkit clone scene (now well into its Carry On Columbus years) is led by Phil Labonte. He doesn't understand why people have a problem with him chucking the word 'faggot' about:

Wiederhorn asked Labonte about his use of homophobic slurs, specifically, his use of the word “faggot” in 2011 and his 2005 declaration that PC, or political correctness, “is for faggots.”

“I have nothing against gay people,” Labonte said. Referring to the f word, he said, “It’s just a word.” The singer, who is white, said he believes no one besides African-Americans has a right to complain about slanderous language.

“Honestly, I think the only people that have a legit grievance when it comes to any racial slurs is the black community,” Labonte said. “I know the homosexual community has problems with it and I understand their hurt feelings. But homosexuals were never property. They’ve had a rough time and I’m not trying to minimize that, but I think the black community has a whole lot more room to be upset about a word than the LGBT community.

“It’s one thing to say, ‘This guy said something and it hurt my feelings and it bummed me out and it sucks.’ Okay, that’s a good perspective. But I don’t know that you need a whole social movement.

“When it comes to the shit that black people have gone through I think it’s okay to be like, ‘Well you know, that was seriously fucked up.’ We need to do something about this.”

It's always nice to hear a white, middle-class, straight man taking time out of his busy career to draw up a list of which marginalised groups have legitimate grievances and which don't.

A spokesperson for all the gays, lesbian, bi, pan and genderqueer people issued a statement in response: "It's obviously disappointing that centuries of violent repression isn't enough to get us approved as having a genuine grievance but obviously Labonte's opinion is compelling. If, for him, the extermination of gay people in Nazi death camps; incidents such as the beating to a slow death of gay men like Ritch Dowrey; 54 countries at the UN having officially signed up as being against LGBT rights; and the findings by Amnesty that lawyers and other supporters of equality are routinely hassled - if all that isn't enough for our grievances to be valid in his eyes, well, fair enough."

All gay pride marches have been cancelled in favour of All That Remains gigs for the foreseeable future.