'The Bachelor' Host Responds To Anti-Gay Remarks

A whole bunch of signs of repetitive annoyance swept the world of people who pay attention to reality television last week when The Bachelor star Juan Pablo Galavis expressed to the world that a gay Bachelor would just be too "perverted" and that the world wasn't ready. Then apologies occurred, and occurred again, but despite the fact that those apologies didn't really do much to alter those who frowned in Galavis' general direction after the comments, The Bachelor 's ratings actually didn't go down that much.

Still, it's a capital-I Issue for ABC, and though they've already responded with a terse "That was dumb and we did not like it" (to paraphrase; the actual statement can be read here), the saga is not over. Now it's The Bachelor host Chris Harrison's turn to talk, to The Hollywood Reporter, though his comments are surprisingly more wishy-washy than the network's were:

I took a long time to think about it. I was disappointed in his comments, and they obviously don't reflect my feelings or my thoughts on the subject. But you have to respect his freedom to say or do whatever he wants.

My response to his response?: Yeah, freedom of speech or whatever, but it doesn't erase Galavis' comments' status as a dick move.