Leaked BET Emails Reveal Execs Forced Transgender Host B. Scott To Look Less 'Like A Woman'
Emails and texts obtained by TMZ have exposed additional details about BET executives' decision to make a transgender host change into a more masculine outfit during the pre-show for the 2013 BET Awards in Los Angeles.
B. Scott filed a suit against the network and its parent company Viacom last year after he says he was removed from the show's red carpet due to his outfit choice. In a copy of the suit obtained by TMZ, Scott says he was told to change out of his pre-approved outfit of a blue tunic, black pants, hair, makeup and heels because the network did not want him to look like a woman.
Scott was informed that his outfit was unacceptable after the show's first segment. He then switched into a new outfit but didn't return on air, being replaced later by singer Adrienne Bailon, reports the Huffington Post.
The network admitted to making Scott change clothes and apologized in a statement, describing the situation as a "miscommunication." Scott called the statement a "non-apology." And newly leaked emails and texts obtained by TMZ reveal that BET execs were direct about their desire for Scott to appear more like a man.
In one email written ahead of the show, TMZ says BET Music Programming President Stephen Hill wrote: "I don't want 'looking like a woman B Scott.' I want tempered B Scott." Network VP Rhonda Cowan then offered to assist in the request, "I can speak to him about being less 'womanly.'"
After he was pulled from the air, B. Scott took to social media to express his anger with the network. BET producer Stephanie Hodges wrote an email after the show supporting this fact: "He got upset and said he was going to blow this s**t up and call GLAAD," the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
Another email obtained by TMZ from BET's Monique Ware details how the network planned to spin the incident to make it appear "he was late for a live show and subsequently replaced." Additional texts and emails from execs say that Scott had been drinking, was uncooperative and had also shown up late to the show wearing an outfit that -- contrary to Scott's claim -- had not bee pre-approved.
Scott detailed his experience at the June 2013 awards show in a statement posted to his website in August of last year.
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