‘Queer Eye’ Star Karamo Brown Forgives Shania Twain: ‘That One Vote Doesn’t Define Her’

If you ask culture aficionado Karamo Brown, forgiveness is part of the gay community’s DNA.

In a new Facebook Live interview with journalist Mark Malkin, Karamo Brown emphasized the importance of forgiveness when it comes to country pop icon Shania Twain, who stirred controversy when she mentioned in a Guardian interview that she would have voted for Donald Trump.

“I would say as a community we are very forgiving,” Brown told Malkin. “It’s in our nature because we have been treated so bad by people in our family and our friends who didn’t accept us as we go on our journeys. We’ve learned how to be empathetic and to forgive and I believe as a community we will again.”

Twain eventually apologized for her statements, though to many people, the damage had been done.

Brown went further, clarifying that the one vote (note: it was not a vote, as Twain is Canadian, which Malkin andBrown both acknowledge) “does not define her as a woman.”

“Let’s be honestthat one vote? Many of our friends and family members did make that vote,” Brown said. “That one vote doesn’t define her as a woman.”

After Twain Gate, INTO published an essay on the increasingly precarious relationship between queer men and white women icons. Brown’s comments further the idea that many queer men can forgive those who may not have their own interests at heart, though, there’s always the idea that we not give white women a one-way pass to icon status without checking their credentials.