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Gay News: Former Formula One champion Niki Lauda has apologised for making gay comments in an interview with Austrian daily Österreich.
Niki Lauda
Niki Lauda says sorry for anti-gay comments
During the course of the interview, the 61-year-old criticised Austrian TV channel ORF for pairing an openly gay TV presenter Alfons Haider with a straight man in a future edition of Dance Stars,
He said that he would be upset explaining to his children why a man was dancing with another man.
“There are some good traditions in our culture, one of which is that men dance with women,” he told the newspaper. “Soon we will reach the stage where we will all have to publicly apologise for being heterosexual.”
Lauda denied he was homophobic, but following complaints from gay groups, he posted an apology on the Facebook page of his airline FlyNiki.
“I would like to apologise to all the people who were hurt by my choice of words,” he said in a statement.
“I would like to repeat here one more time that I have never had any prejudice against homosexuals.”
Vienna-based gay rights group HOSI have invited Lauda to their annual Rainbow Ball in March – where same-sex couples dancing together are the norm.
