The Guy Behind the Tracy Morgan Facebook Flap :: EDGE Interviews Kevin Rogers

Tennessee native and professional photographer Kevin Rogers was preparing to launch Fuzz, a new magazine geared toward bears, when he attended a comedy show by Tracy Morgan last month in Nashville. What he heard at the June 3 performance shocked Rogers so deeply that he wrote up an account at Facebook.

In the show, Morgan had gone off on what seemed to be a vitriolic, homophobic rant. The most troubling part of the set, for many, was the way Morgan talked about GLBT youth.

"He took time to visit the bullshit of this bullying stuff and informed us that the gays needed to quit being pussies and not be whining about something as insignificant as bullying," Rogers recounted in his Facebook posting. "He mentioned that gay was something kids learn from the media and programming, and that bullied kids should just bust some ass and beat those other little fuckers that bully them, not whine about it.

"He said if his son that was gay he better come home and talk to him like a man and not [he mimicked a gay, high pitched voice] or he would pull out a knife and stab that little N (one word I refuse to use) to death. He mentioned that Barack Obama needed to man up and quit being all down with this just because he has a wife and two daughters. All of this being followed by thunderous cheer and 'You go Tracys,'" Rogers continued.

"Tracy then said he didn't fucking care if he pissed off some gays, because if they can take a fucking dick up their ass... they can take a fucking joke."

That posting went viral, and before long the GLBT press -- and the mainstream media -- had gotten hold of the story. Though EDGE was one of the first to report on Rogers' account, the story got so big so quickly that Rogers was speaking to CNN before he knew it, and Morgan was promptly headed back to Nashville for a very public apology.

EDGE had been in contact with Rogers just as the story was taking off, and stayed in touch with him throughout a brief, but highly focused, news cycle in which Morgan's faux pas was the subject of intense scrutiny. Rogers wrote to EDGE early on that he'd had "no idea" that his post would unleash the furor that resulted.

Through the News Cycle - and the Wringer

At one point, EDGE noted that Rogers had made 120 new Facebook friends in one day. Though most people seemed to offer Rogers support, there were inevitably some who disliked what he's had to say, and his igniting a firestorm. Some even suggested that the post had been intended to start a fracas, in order to publicize the first issue of Fuzz.

Rogers says that this was not at all true. If anything, the media fuss and the amount of time and energy he had to spend on the subject of Tracy Morgan, took away from his efforts to launch the magazine, the first issue of which ended up being slightly delayed.

Now, with the face-to-face meeting with Morgan behind him and the premiere issue of Fuzz having been launched in both print and digital formats, Rogers' life is returning to a semblance of normalcy. He graciously consented to speak with EDGE about having been put through the news cycle.

Suddenly in the Spotlight

EDGE: When you sat down to write your Facebook account of Tracy Morgan's anti-gay spiel, were you looking to blow off some steam? Or maybe warn others about the content of the show?

Kevin Rogers: Probably a little bit of both things -- to blow off steam and to get it out.

At the time I had about 1,400 Facebook friends that I had gained by working on and trying to launch our magazine. I thought, 'There are 1,400 friends here, and many of them are gay males. If they're fans of Tracy, like I was, if they're planning to go see Tracy because they're expecting to see something [funny], they're probably going to get something quite different from what they're expecting.'

A good portion of [the posting] was a warning that you might want to be aware of what you're getting yourself into.

EDGE: When the story blew up and suddenly you were being phoned by CNN, what was your response to that?

Kevin Rogers: I guess I was shocked. I was slightly panicked, just because I didn't expect all of that to happen.

As soon as I found out that CNN wanted to speak with me, I called my partner at his work, and I said 'Hey, here's what's going on; what do you think?' We both came to the decision that it was the right thing to move forward, for me to tell my story.

I was the only person from that night that had said anything or spoken out, so it was just my word against the world and Tracy Morgan.

Friends and Critics

EDGE: You already had 1,400 Facebook friends, but shortly after the story broke you were gaining hundreds more. Were people pretty much positive toward you in the online world?

Kevin Rogers: I actually gained almost 800 friends since all of this happened. I would say 99% of [the people I've been in touch with] have all been supportive and very nice.

Another 1% has been extremely rude, and some threatening. I've had people threaten my life, I've had people threaten my livelihood.

And suddenly there's another 1% giving me a lot of flack for being forgiving, and saying I don't have any right to speak for the LGBT community.

EDGE: When Tracy Morgan came back to Nashville to apologize and you met him, did you feel that he was sincere in his explanation that wasn't speaking out of hate, but rather had just told some bad jokes?

Kevin Rogers: Yeah. In the private meeting that we had, myself and my partner were there; a lesbian couple that had been at the show were there.

When Tracy and his publicist came into the room, and as the folks from GLAAD were trying to introduce him to some other folks that were there, he kinda shrugged them off and just said, "Hey, you must be Kevin." He walked toward me and said, "Let me talk to you for a second."

Eye to Eye with Tracy Morgan

Kevin Rogers: He stood right in front of me and he put his hands up on my shoulders and said, "I want you to look me in the eye and I want you to believe that what I'm telling you is sincere and heartfelt."

He apologized, and he told me about being bullied himself as a kid, and said that he never meant to hurt anybody. He said his biggest concern from all of this was he didn't realize, being a comedian, that his words could have the impact that they did that night.

He was extremely hurt that he could have hurt anyone else. He genuinely seemed to be very hurt that he had hurt me.

EDGE: Of course, now he's gone on to offend another group of people.

Kevin Rogers: My understanding is, he was being insensitive to that group long before the night that we had our show. He actually told that set [of jokes] the night of our show.

There's a big difference to me between both of those things, and, you know, I've gotten so much flack about not being able to take a joke, and comedians have every right to talk about whatever they want to talk about.

When he does that set that he's now getting some heat over, it does seem to be in a joking manner. It does seem seem that he's just trying to make a joke.

I think that night we went to see him, he truly was trying to joke [about the GLBT community]. He just didn't go about it correctly, and it failed. It came across as more a serious conversation than it did a joke.

Warm and ’Fuzz’y

EDGE: Is life calming down now? Will you be able to launch your magazine?

Kevin Rogers: Yes, everything it calming down quote a bit. We actually did launch the magazine a couple of days ago. We're going full bore with that.

EDGE: The printer for your magazine won't allow you to show your models in their full glory. How do you feel about this as an artist, seeing as how you took all the photos yourself?

Kevin Rogers: I wish we could have freedom to print whatever, but it's also been kind of cool to keep it more about erotica than nudity.

At some point we may try to find another printer, but we had to start somewhere and the current [printer] was the most cost-effective for us as well.

We've discussed placing some full nudes on the website in a subscriber area.

EDGE: So it sounds like the Tracy Morgan flap is pretty well behind you at this point.

Kevin Rogers: I've mentioned on Facebook several times that I'm kind of done talking about the whole incident, and as far as [talking to the] media, I'm willing to talk about it what happened from the point of the show going forward, like we've done today, but I'm done talking about that night itself.

All's forgiven. It's water under the bridge. He promises not to hurt anybody else with his comments as far as the LGBT community goes, and as long as he holds his word, we're good with it.