A California federal judge dismissed a $14.5 million (£11 million €12.3 million) gay slur libel lawsuit against Frank Ocean filed by his own father on Tuesday (17 October).
Ocean’s father, Calvin Cooksey, filed the lawsuit after a Tumblr post claimed he was transphobic.
In response to the Orlando shooting, Ocean wrote a moving post about LGBTI inequality. This included a reference to an incident when he was six years old.
The out gay singer wrote: ‘I was six years old when I heard my dad call our transgender waitress a faggot as he dragged me out a neighborhood diner saying we wouldn’t be served because she was dirty.
‘That was the last afternoon I saw my father and the first time I heard that word, I think, although it wouldn’t shock me if it wasn’t,’ he said.
U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson ruled Cooksey cannot adequately prove the post was defamatory.
Frank Ocean is a ‘scam artist, a fraud and a hypocrite’
When Cooksey originally filed the lawsuit in February, he claimed Ocean only wrote the post as a ‘publicity stunt.’
He told Rolling Stone: Frank is ‘us[ing] his father as an instrument for personal connection in order to sell records.
‘I have never discriminated against anyone transgender or heterosexual or homosexual,’ he said.
Ocean’s attorney told TMZ: ‘It was a sad case, but we are glad that it ended in Frank’s favor and that it is over.’
Ocean‘s attorney, Keith Bremer also confirmed the outcome: ‘I am sorry that my client had to go through this and am glad that we could bring closure.’
Read the full Tumblr post:
