Feb 09, 2007  |  By: ZACK HUDSON  | COMMENTS     

A gay-popular television network with three GLAAD Media Award nominations has raised the ire of the gay media watchdog group by airing a reality show tirade in which two brothers exchanged anti-gay slurs.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation complained about an altercation between brothers Shane and Colton Keough, whose mother Jeana Keough is a principal cast member of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Orange County.” The reality show documents the conflicts and triumphs of a group of wealthy women who live in ritzy Coto de Caza, Calif.

During the episode that first aired Jan. 23, Shane, who is 20, was watching television with friends when younger brother Colton, 14, approached the group holding a cookie smeared with peanut butter, which he dropped. Shane took the first jab at his brother, mocking Colton’s domestic prowess.

“Nice job. Now go get your gay-pron and clean that up with your mouth,” he said.

Later in the episode, during an argument about golf-cart repairs, Shane sneaked up behind Colton and poured a bottle of water over Colton’s head, inciting the younger boy to rage.

“What the fuck are you doing? You fucking faggot, Shane,” Colton cried out as he jumped up from his seat.

The boys exchanged more words and Colton continued barraging his brother with anti-gay barbs.

“Get off me, you faggot. God, he’s a fucking homo,” the younger brother whined.

Jeana, who could be seen nearby as the brothers tangled, seemed nonplussed by her sons’ language, which included censored expletives. She intervened only when the tussle briefly appeared to become physical.

GLAAD states that the organization contacted Bravo executives immediately after the show first aired to request that the network censor the words “faggot,” “homo” and “gay-pron” from the episode and promotional commercials for the show.

The group criticized Bravo for allowing the segment to air with the anti-gay words left unchecked.

“Had these dehumanizing slurs been addressed or challenged by someone on the show, I think Bravo could make a case for why it was important to air them. But as actually aired, the scene gives viewers tacit permission to downplay this as nothing more than crude misbehavior and nothing could be further from the truth,” GLAAD Entertainment Media Director Damon Romine said. 

“This kind of unacceptable behavior should be addressed by Shane and Colton’s parents, and it’s Bravo’s responsibility to not broadcast anti-gay insults on air,” Romine wrote.

BRAVO PRESS representatives deferred questions about the controversy, pointing to a blog post written by Andy Cohen, the network’s senior vice president of production and programming.

“We had a quick discussion about whether to leave the word in the show or not. I thought we should keep it in because it, and the scene, speaks for itself. I don’t think seeing it gives license to anyone to use the word or makes it look ‘cool’ to use the word.

“If we change the word or bleep it, we make the person saying it different (better?) than he is, and draw attention to the word, perhaps drawing more attention to it than it deserves,” Cohen wrote.