YouTube star Logan Paul found himself in a familiar position this week — issuing a public apology after his actions caused a stir online.
Last year, the social media star found himself apologizing after publishing a video showing the body of a man who had taken his life in Japan’s “Suicide Forest,” and this year, he is issuing an apology after a statement this week that he was planning to “go gay for a month.” As Fox News reported, the 23-year-old had made the comment during an episode of his podcast, Impaulsive.
In an exchange with co-host Mike Meljak, Paul joked about what kind of challenges they could undertake for each month of the year.
“January is sober vegan January,” Paul said, adding that February was “Fatal February.”
“It’s male-only March,” he said. “We’re going to attempt to go gay for just one month.”
The remark drew backlash from LGBT groups, including the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which tweeted to Paul, “That’s not how it works, @LoganPaul.”
Logan Paul responded with an apology and an invitation to his next podcast.”
“very poor choice of words… my fault. let’s get together and talk about it on my podcast next week?” he wrote.
The incident came a little more than a year after the New Year’s Eve 2017 video that rocked Logan Paul’s career. During a visit to Japan, he uploaded a video showing himself and a group of friends going on a laugh-filled adventure in what was known as “Suicide Forest,” where people have traditionally gone to take their own lives. During the trip, Paul and his friends came across a dead body and filmed it, putting the clip into their video. YouTube added the video to its trending list, sparking a backlash both against Logan Paul and YouTube for promoting it.
The stunt cost Paul quite a bit of revenue as well, the BBC reported. YouTube removed his videos from its Google Preferred program, which is reserved for the top tier of YouTubers.
Paul initially claimed that he hoped the video would raise awareness of suicide, but a number of mental health advocates spoke out against him saying that his video was making light of it and could actually push more people toward suicide. He ultimately offered a full apology.
“Let’s start with this—I’m sorry,” Logan wrote on Twitter . “This is a first for me. I’ve never faced criticism like this before, because I’ve never made a mistake like this before. I’m surrounded by good people and believe I make good decisions, but I’m still a human being. I can be wrong.”
More endless idiocy from @LoganPaul Mocking/exploiting suicide victims, now homophobia, and a a predictable apology tour. What a sad commentary that this “youtube star” is making millions. Gutter values.–> Logan Paul will ‘go gay’ for a month https://t.co/naCpeTrApU #LoganPaul
— Patty Dixon???? (@PattyLDixon) January 12, 2019
GLAAD had not yet responded to Logan Paul’s offer to appear on his podcast.
