So the Dropkick Murphys' Al Barr was the spokesman for an ad that was promoting the Punk and Disorderly festival in Germany.
The video is now taken down and isn't anywhere to be found, however the word "faggot" was used by Barr. This raised a lot of controversy, and rightfully so. Never is it acceptable to use that word as a slur or name in any context, so it was completely out of line.
Al Barr decided to step up and apologize, posting this on their Facebook page:
"hey everybody –
al barr here – i just wanted to address the negative comment that i made. first off, i'd like to apologize for using the term that i did. by no means did i intend for it to cause any hurt or harm, i now fully realize how insensitive it was.
having grown up within a very diverse punk scene, i have many gay friends. i would never want to hurt anyone's feelings with my comments.
i did not mean anything by this and now understand it is a word that i should not have used and will not use in the future. please accept my sincere apologies.
my band and i are any anything but homophobic and our 16 year track record proves that we stand up for human rights and fight against injustices towards all people.
thanks for your time and support, and again, please accept my sincere apologies."
It doesn't matter whether or not he has gay friends, first of all. I have plenty of friends who are gay as well and that most certainly wouldn't be a reason to justify if I ever said "faggot".
Also, the fact that he mentions their "16 year track record" doesn't even begin to explain how they stand up for human rights… I don't see the correlation.
Regardless, it was wrong and no amount of apologizing will make people forget the fact that he used a homophobic slur. It's distasteful and wrong.