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Bret Easton Ellis's tweets provoke 'ban' from gay media awards

This article is more than 10 years oldNovelist and screenwriter misses ceremony in wake of string of contentious comments on social media

Bret Easton Ellis was barred from attending the annual Glaad media awards at the weekend, the perennially controversial novelist and screenwriter has revealed.

Ellis was due to attend the LA event, which honours organisations and individuals for their positive representation of those in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual communities, as the guest of an invitee. The writer, who is currently in a gay relationship, revealed via Twitter he would no longer be attending.

"As a gay man in a domestic partnership who plans to get married I'm sad to hear I've been banned by Glaad from attending tomorrow's event," the American Psycho author wrote. "Glaad is supposedly 'furious' about my tweets. And I'm guessing not the ones concerning my boyfriend or how sexy I think Adam Driver is."

Glaad later confirmed it had sought a meeting with Ellis after noting that he was due to attend, but denied issuing an outright ban on the writer. "Glaad spoke with the guest who was planning to bring Bret about some of Bret's recent remarks, which the gay community responded negatively to," the organisation's vice president of communications Rich Ferraro told the Hollywood Reporter. "We also asked for a time to sit down with Bret. They decided to replace Bret with a different guest and there has been no response to the offer of a meeting."

Ellis has made a slew of controversial comments via Twitter over the past couple of years which might easily have been the source of Glaad's ire. He compared the experience of watching TV show Glee to "stepping into a puddle of HIV" in 2011 and last year argued that openly gay US actor Matt Bomer was wrong for the role of Christian Grey in the upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey film purely on the basis of his sexuality. He also said he agreed with Paris Hilton after the latter was caught on tape suggesting that gay men who used the "hook-up" app Grindr "probably have Aids".

In Ellis's defence, it is not only gay people the Less Than Zero author has upset via Twitter. He was forced to apologise to film-maker Kathryn Bigelow in December after suggesting the director of The Hurt Locker had only won an Oscar due to being a "hot woman", and raised eyebrows in 2010 after joking about holding a party to celebrate the death of The Catcher in the Rye author JD Salinger.

Ellis was still tweeting away at time of writing. His latest posting berated Glaad for barring him but honouring former US president Bill Clinton. "Bill Clinton signed Doma [Defense of Marriage Act] and Don't Ask Don't Tell and cheated on Hillary," wrote Easton Ellis. "I dissed Glee and Matt Bomer as Christian Grey. GLAAD: RIGHT ON!"

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