American Idol just crowned their winner last week, but the fan favorite was La'Porsha Renae, who came in second place. In a recent interview, the powerhouse singer was asked about her thoughts on an anti-gay bill in Mississippi, which is her home state, and she said, “I am one of the people who don’t really agree with that lifestyle. I wasn’t brought up that way. It wasn’t how I was raised. But I do have a lot of friends and a lot of people that I love dearly who are gay and homosexual and they’re such sweet, nice people. We should just respect each other’s differences and opinions and move on.”
Many people were disappointed by her comments and she received some serious backlash on Twitter:

Ouch. Well, La'Porsha attempted to do some damage control and tweeted this:

It should be noted, the term "lifestyle" is generally offensive to many in the LGBT community. Your sexual orientation or gender identity is not a lifestyle, but who you are. Furthermore, La'Porsha's comments come at a sensitive time, when anti-gay bills are being passed in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi. The bills use the language of "religious freedom" to discriminate against LGBT people for housing, health care and adoption.
That said, do you believe her comments were offensive?
Check out our interview with Janet Mock below, who talks more about identity.

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