Neil Patrick Harris criticized James Woods over a tweet the actor posted Monday about a family and their “gender creative” son at an LGBT pride parade.
The war of words began when Woods posted a tweet Monday of a man and a woman with their young son at the Orange County Pride Parade in California. The photo in his tweet shows the couple holding signs that read “I love my gender creative son!” and “My son wears dresses & makeup… Get over it!!”
Woods captioned the tweet, writing, “This is sweet. Wait until this poor kid grows up, realizes what you’ve done, and stuffs both of you dismembered into a freezer in the garage.”
Harris, who is openly gay, condemned the Casino star and said he should be “ashamed” of himself.
“Utterly ignorant and classless, Mr. Woods,” Harris wrote in a tweet that has gone viral on the social media platform. “I’m friends with this family. You know not of what you speak, and should be ashamed of yourself.”
Meanwhile Lori Duron, the mother of 10-year-old boy in the photo, called the actor’s tweet “gross” and “troubling.”
“The fact that it was so detailed, it’s really gross to me any time that adults talk about children that way,” Duron told People. “And the visual image that he evoked was troubling.”
Woods defended his original tweet in a series of Twitter messages Wednesday, refuting criticism that he is homophobic and said the boy’s parents are committing “child abuse.”
“Using one’s child as a social justice propaganda doll is tantamount to child abuse. This is not about homophobia. Nice try though,” Woods wrote. “For the record I have supported human rights of all stripes and persuasions, colors, creeds, choices and preferences my entire life. Period.”
“Some children can be ruthlessly cruel to children who are simply different in any way,” the 70-year-old actor tweeted. “I humbly suggest making your child a target is unwise.”
To those accusing him of being homophobic, Woods said “I spent my entire adult life in the New York theatre scene, kids. I have more gay friends than Liberace. So let’s stop the homophobia train. I’m old enough to remember the agony friends suffered for being different. Being wrongly accused of anything is vile.”
“And of course the final word on all of this is that I frankly don’t give a sh*t what anybody thinks about me,” Woods concluded.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @jeromeehudson
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