July 13, 2017
Mother Responds to James Woods Tweet About Gender Non-Conforming Son, Actor Doubles Down
READ TIME: 2 MIN.
After a mother responded to James Woods' controversial tweet about her 10-year-old gender non-conforming son, the actor doubled down on his remarks, which drew the ire of many social media users, including out actor Neil Patrick Harris.
The Academy Award-nominated actor sparked controversy when he took to Twitter to share a photo of a family at Orange County Pride. The image showed a young boy, later identified as CJ Duron, and his mother and father, who are seen holding signs that read, "I love my gender creative son!" and "My son wears dresses & makeup...get over it!!" In his tweet, Woods added his own caption to the otherwise heartwarming snap.
"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," Woods, 70, wrote.
Twitter users were quick to call him out as did Harris, who knows the family. The "Gone Girl" star wrote: "Utterly ignorant and classless, Mr. Woods. I'm friends with this family. You know not of what you speak, and should be ashamed of yourself."
After Woods' tweet went viral, it earned over 12,000 shares and 30,000 likes since being posted on July 10, the boy's mother spoke out against the "Videodrome" actor in an interview with People magazine.
"The fact that it was so detailed, it's really gross to me anytime that adults talk about children that way," Lori Duron said. "And the visual image that he evoked was troubling.
"We've spent seven years sharing our journey to the public," she went on to say, referring to her Raising My Rainbow blog. "We were on his radar, but he wasn't on ours. It was shocking. I feel like adults should know better."
The mother said that Woods' tweet was "hugely misinformed."
"LGBTQ youth don't hurt their parents, they hurt themselves. We're trying to raise our son in way that he doesn't fall into those behaviors," Duron told People. "His tweet was so uninformed. LGBTQ youth do not kill other people, they kill themselves."
Nevertheless, that didn't stop Woods from doubling down on his comments. He took to Twitter again Wednesday and fired off a series of tweets referencing the controversy.
