If you’re a fan of the Duggar family, then you’re no doubt familiar with the controversy surrounding Derick Dillard.
If you somehow missed the uproar or simply forgot how awful Derick is, here’s a brief refresher:
Back in August of 2017, Derick launched a transphobic tirade against fellow TLC reality star Jazz Jennings.
When fans and pointed out to Derick that he was needlessly bullying a teenage girl, he doubled down with more bigoted remarks.
And when his bosses demanded an apology, Dllard refused.
As a result, Derick was fired from Counting On, which was a devastating blow to his family’s finances in itself.
The situation was made exponentially worse by the fact that Jill Duggar quit the show as a gesture of solidarity.
Derick’s views are pretty much consistent with the far-right ideology espoused by his in-laws, but now it looks as though his own inner circle is turning against him.
In the past week, even Jill Duggar has made comments that have been widely interpreted as critical of Derick’s remarks.
Now, another member of the extended Duggar clan has come forward to more explicitly state his contempt for Dillard’s anti-gay views.
John Andrew Studdard is a cousin of Jill’s who was in attendance at her wedding to Derick in 2014.
Studdard is an LGBTQ activist who expressed his distaste for Derick’s remarks in an interview published today by Radar Online.
“We aren’t close,” Studdard told the outlet. “But I’m sick of hearing his homophobic cries for publicity.”
Studdard added:
“Derick needs to keep his mouth shut.”
Asked how he feels Derick should address matters of inequality going forward, Studdard replied that he should speak with compassion, or not at all:
“We don’t have to agree with someone’s life, but don’t speak out publicly when you know you’re already disliked by half of America,” he told Radar.
“As a public figure, he should stop being so harsh.”
While we agree with Studdard that Derick should shut his trap, the reason why he should do so isn’t that he’s a public figure, but rather that his views and arguments are so consistently idiotic.
Derick has yet to respond to Studdard’s remarks and it’s unlikely that he ever will.
He generally only enters debates with people who are much younger and much more vulnerable.
Watch Counting On online for more on reality TV’s most controversial family.
