Isaiah Washington has an unlikely ally in gay and lesbian activist Jasmyne Cannick, who thinks that it was wrong to boot the Grey's Anatomy actor after he did so much to prove to the network and the show's producers that he was a changed man.

The petition says Washington's firing "further adds to a disturbing new trend at ABC wherein minority actors have been dismissed at an alarming rate over the past two years. Blacks, including . . . Star Jones ('The View'), Harold Perrineau ('Lost'), Alfre Woodard, Mehcad Brooks and Page Kennedy ('Desperate Housewives') have been let go . . . One must ask themselves, what is going on? . . . While we don't approve of [Washington's] use of the F-word at the Golden Globes, Washington has since apologized and gone on to perform community service by way of a public service announcement for the very organizations that have been orchestrating his dismissal. But it seems it wasn't enough."

Our brother site Queerty tells Stereohyped that Cannick already has a bad reputation in the gay community for putting racial issues first, and she seems to be proving their point with her petition drive. I'm not really in a position to judge her on that, and some of ABC's firings are alarming. But let's not cut Star Jones any slack, please. As for Isaiah Washington, I think that he needed to have been made an example of. Whether or not the higher ups should have waited until he humbled himself before all of gay America in the name of his job to do it is another question.

[NYP]