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Nate Berkus Handles Duggar Daughter Husband’s Anti-Gay Tirade Beautifully

By Holly Chavez
Published on: 12:38 PST, May 8, 2018

It’s been quite an eventful time lately for two members of the Duggar clan, even though they’d probably like to forget some aspects of it.

First, Jill Duggar Dillard’s husband Derrick Dillard landed in hot water April 27 after he went on what many consider an anti-gay tirade on social media against Nate Berkus and his family, reports the Huffington Post.

Then, Jill Duggar Dillard further fanned the flames by responding nonchalantly and not condemning her husband’s homophobic tirade on Instagram. However, it’s how beautifully Nate Berkus ultimately handles Dillard’s scathing criticism that’s the best and classiest part of this story.

For the uninitiated, Jill Duggar Dillard is the fourth of 19 children born to Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. Jill Duggar was introduced to her husband Derick Dillard by her father, and the two were married on June 21, 2014. She is best known for her appearances on TLC shows 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On.

Both she and her husband Derrick Dillard appeared on Counting On, which concentrates on the goings-on of her large and religious family. The dynamic changed in December 2017 when Dillard announced that he and Jill were resigning from the show.

In light of this, and according to MSN, rumors later surfaced suggesting that Dillard had allegedly been let go from the show in November because he belittled transgender teen activist Jazz Jennings, saying that the term “transgender is a myth” and that her gender identity, was, in fact, “a non-reality.”

What’s more, if the rumors are true, Derick Dillard didn’t learn enough from the Jazz Jenning experience and went on to stick his foot in it yet again this weekend.

In his latest faux pas, he tweeted some shocking criticism against Nate & Jeremiah By Design star Nate Berkus and his family. Nate & Jeremiah By Design airs on the same network as the Duggars’ reality TV shows. “The interior design series is a collaboration between Berkus and his husband, Jeremiah Brent.” The couple are also parents to 3-year-old daughter Poppy and their new son, Oskar Michael.

His condemnation of them is illustrated in the tweet from April 27 below.

After posting and assailing Berkus, who is openly gay, Derrick Dillard found himself in a minefield of heated social media responses. The tweet Dillard unleashed on him seemed particularly “judgy” and homophobic, inciting angry outbursts galore on Twitter. One person wrote to another saying, “Your definition of ‘wrong’ is your own, and you don’t have the right to tell others how to live. Judge not lest ye be judged,”

Another added, “Maybe he should read his bible again before making more horrible statements in a public forum.”

Jill Duggar Dillard didn’t help matters, either, when she responded to the controversy on May 7 with a lukewarm, bewildering Instagram post saying, “To disagree doesn’t = hate, or judgement. Love doesn’t always = approval.

On the other hand, Nate Berkus took the opportunity to send a classy, family-focused message by tweeting out the following response,

“My hope with having a show like #NandJByDesign on @TLC, where we go into people’s homes and welcome viewers into ours, is that we can start to break down barriers & normalize the way our family looks & the way our family loves.”

Sharon sums it up perfectly for many of us. She wrote that she thought that Nate Berkus handled the situation “beautifully.”

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