Perez Hilton's anti-gay slur

Was it okay for the openly gay blogger to use a derogatory word during an altercation?

Openly gay celebrity blogger Perez Hilton "has angered a powerful gay rights group," said PopEater. In "a heated confrontation" with Black Eyed Peas star Will.i.am over the weekend—during which Hilton was allegedly physically assaulted by the musician's manager, Polo Molina—Perez was caught on videotape (watch) hurling "an anti-gay slur" at the hip-hop star. Now the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is "calling for an apology from the self-dubbed 'Queen of All Media.'"

Naturally, said Jocelyn Vena in MTV.com, "Perez Hilton isn't letting GLAAD's criticism of him go by without comment." In fact, Hilton—"who briefly worked as a media relations assistant for GLAAD before becoming a gossip blogger"—thinks the organization owes him an apology, and issued a statement saying, "I am saddened GLAAD chose to victimize me further by criticizing me for how I nonviolently dealt with a very scary situation that, unfortunately, turned violent." (watch Will.i.am's explanation of what happened)

"Victimize?" said Elizabeth Snead in the Los Angeles Times. Sure, no punches should have been thrown, but "Perez is still refusing to acknowledge that using hate speech and name calling is an inappropriate way to defuse a situation." And even in the video where Hilton tries to defend himself (watch), he's "still name calling, referring to Will.i.am as a 'thug.'" Perez really "needs a self-importance antidote, stat."