[Jamie89]

Originally Posted by Brother Leon

People can change. In Secondary school I was anti gay marriage and felt that nothing was changing my mind. Four years later, I was marching for gay rights and supporting the cause. Everyone matures at different rates. That said, he looks a twat, so...

Originally Posted by Ammi

...hmmm, I don't know anything about this guy or his life/the environment and influences that he's had in childhood etc or through his early teen life with his peers etc...the comments are fairly awful, I know...but this was 4 years ago that he made them..?...we know people have mind-sets like this/have prejudices/intolerances and ignorances etc../we know that but are we to say that it's not more about progressing and those mind-sets being changed...about the human he is now, not the one he was 4 years ago..and he's saying that, it's not him now or anything like him and isn't that the most important thing here, that he's re-assessed his thoughts..it would be sad if he were judged forever for this because, then what would be the goal to change 'ist' mind-sets and surely that's the thing...if once having those thoughts, they're then going to be the thing that continues to define you, no matter what you feel now, just doesn't seem right .... anyways as I say, I don't know anything about this person but if his apology and his words now are indeed sincere and true..then it's his words now that I'm looking at more than his words and the person of 4 years ago...because that wold be real change of a 'hateful' mindset....

I do think people's views can change, but the things he said weren't just general comments against issues such as gay marriage that he may have changed his stance on, or signs of immaturity, they were really hateful comments, extreme in my view, and saying things like 'burn' and 'die'... and that apology, it smacks of PR to me. It's so clever, the way it's worded and structured. And it's actually made me more angry reading it tbh. I mean I could be wrong obviously, I don't know this person, but that's how I feel looking at it, and the underlying message will be that it's OK to say the kinds of things he said as long as someone writes you a good apology note afterwards...?
Like I said I do think people can change, but I also think that when it's people in the public eye, there should be consequences for stuff like this. It's not even so much about punishing him, but sending a message to the people that look up to him, so they see that there are consequences that can effect their lives and careers (and obviously just that it's wrong etc), that can't be solved as quickly and easily as he seems to be trying to do.