Source: Bly Holte / Instagram
This year has been a strange one. None of us could have predicted the tragedy, cruelty, and sometimes utter randomness of everything that happened this year.
An incident that feel in the cruel and random category was Dean Browning, a white Republican, tweeting about being a Black, gay man who former President Barack Obama had done nothing for.
Browning is not Black or gay so his tweet was odd, to say the least.
When questioned about it, he revealed that he accidentally copied and posted the message from a supporter. And the words were not his own.
That supporter was Byl Holte, the adopted son and biological nephew of the legendary, and noted Obama-supporter Ms. Patti LaBelle.
It’s a shame LaBelle’s name was dragged into all of it. But when she was asked about Holte during a recent interview with O Magazine, she didn’t shy away from discussing it.
“Guess what? I didn’t choose my family. I choose my friends. I love Billy. He has a Republican mind. And, guess what? I don’t. But do I hate him for having the mind that he has? No, I can’t.”
She had, coincidentally, spoken to him hours before the interview and said Holte apologized to her.
“He was saying, ‘I love you and I’m so sorry.’ You give people chances, when sometimes, they don’t even know what they’re doing or why. So I can’t beat him up for the rest of his life. I decided to take the high road with him by letting him know that you make mistakes—but when my name comes in that mistake, that’s a no-no. Certain things happen in life, and I just keep going on, because I love him.”
I get it.
Who can’t relate to having family members that say and even do ridiculous and heinous things? The only luxury we have over LaBelle is that when our family members act up, it doesn’t make national headlines and our names are not associated with their personal foolishness.
