Thread by @Variety

Matt Damon is insisting that he has never used the “f-slur” following a recent interview in which he was quoted saying he had stopped using the offensive term when his daughter wrote him a “treatise”: "I stand with the LGBTQ+ community" bit.ly/3yjtheb

“I recalled a discussion I had with my daughter... I attempted to contextualize for her the progress that has been made – though by no means completed – since I was growing up in Boston and, as a child, heard the word ‘f*g’ used on the street,” says Damon. bit.ly/3yjtheb

“I explained that that word was used constantly and casually and was even a line of dialogue in a movie of mine as recently as 2003; she in turn expressed incredulity that there could ever have been a time where that word was used unthinkingly.” bit.ly/3yjtheb

“To my admiration and pride, she was extremely articulate about the extent to which that word would have been painful to someone in the LGBTQ+ community regardless of how culturally normalized it was." bit.ly/3yjtheb

“I not only agreed with her but thrilled at her passion, values and desire for social justice,” Damon says of his daughter. bit.ly/3yjtheb

“I have never called anyone ‘f****t’ in my personal life and this conversation with my daughter was not a personal awakening. I do not use slurs of any kind,” Damon continued. bit.ly/3yjtheb

“I have learned that eradicating prejudice requires active movement toward justice rather than finding passive comfort in imagining myself ‘one of the good guys,’” says Damon. bit.ly/3yjtheb

“Given that open hostility against the LGBTQ+ community is still not uncommon, I understand why my statement led many to assume the worst. To be as clear as I can be, I stand with the LGBTQ+ community.” bit.ly/3yjtheb

In an interview with the Sunday Times to promote #Stillwater, in which he plays a Trump-supporting father, Damon was quoted saying that he had recently “retired” the offensive term after he used it in a joke and his daughter wrote him a “treatise.” bit.ly/3yjtheb