Entertainment

Bryan Bedder/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Watch Neil Patrick Harris Expertly Clap Back At Anti-LGBT Hate

A huge part of what makes the whole concept of Pride Month beautiful and vital is that it promotes a celebration of LGBT people and fights back against the hatred that some still harbor against them. Take, for example, actor James Woods, who recently took to Twitter to attack a "gender creative" boy and his parents after they attended the boy's first Pride event in California last month. Luckily, there's an argument to be made that the world still boasts more good than bad, as evidenced by actor Neil Patrick Harris who shut down Woods' anti-LGBT comment — because it truly was, as Harris fired back on Twitter, "utterly ignorant and classless."

Woods' comments are both ignorant and classless, but the family he attacked is pretty awesome. According to People, 10-year-old CJ's parents rocked signs reading "I love my gender creative son!" and "My son wears dresses & makeup… Get over it!!" at the Orange County Pride Parade June 24. CJ's mom, Lori Duron — also the voice behind the "Raising My Rainbow" blog in which she chronicles her "adventures in raising a fabulous, gender creative son" — shared a sweet snap from the day. But on Monday, Woods got a hold of it and tweeted it out with a truly awful caption of his own:

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

As Duron wrote on her blog after Pride, CJ considered the day he got to experience Pride for himself one of the best of his young life. "My sweet, fabulous, rainbow boy has never received so many compliments," she wrote. "He's used to getting stares and whispers when we’re out in public. He's not used to getting the smiles, hugs and encouragement he received at Pride."

But, somehow, Woods looked at the photo of the happy child — who contoured his own face especially for the occasion — and his loving parents and thought that it was acceptable to publicly state this indicated that CJ would grow up to be a murderer.

Enter Neil Patrick Harris, who was having none of it.

"Utterly ignorant and classless, Mr. Woods," he tweeted Tuesday, quoting the The Way We Were and Videodrome actor's original tweet. "I'm friends with this family. You know not of what you speak, and should be ashamed of yourself."

Harris, of How I Met Your Mother fame, is 100 percent correct that it's Woods who should be ashamed. On Wednesday, Harris tweeted out what seemed to be a clarification of his comment. "Some children can be ruthlessly cruel to children who are simply different in any way," he wrote. "I humbly suggest making your child a target is unwise."

It's people like Woods, however, who make life hard for LGBT and gender-nonconforming people, not the parents who support and love them. And adults can do so much to curb children's bullying of their classmates simply by modeling inclusivity, acceptance, and love — the exact opposite of what Woods' original tweet accomplished.

To that end, the fact that he has such a strong support system is among CJ's biggest assets. Certainly, his mom thinks so. On Wednesday, Raising My Rainbow's Twitter account thanked Harris for his defense, and praised that "village."

"Still processing much of the last 24 hours. But I know for sure, @ActuallyNPH is class act and our village assembles at a moment's notice."

So, adults everywhere: Be a part of CJ's village. Let Woods know he's so, so far in the wrong.