Back in February, Frank Ocean’s father, Edward Cooksey, filed a lawsuit against his own son for libel, and now the singer is hitting back. The legal drama all stems from a Tumblr post that Frank wrote after of the Orlando nightclub shooting last year. In the wake of that terrible tragedy, Ocean took to his Tumblr account to share a personal essay where he remembered the time his father supposedly called a waiter a gay slur.
“I was six years old when I heard my dad call our transgender waitress a f****t 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. Many hate us and wish we didn’t exist. Many are annoyed by our wanting to be married like everyone else or use the correct restroom like everyone else. Many don’t see anything wrong with passing down the same old values that send thousands of kids into suicidal depression each year. So we say pride and we express love for who and what we are. Because who else will in earnest?”
Now, Ocean is responding to his father’s lawsuit, while asking a judge to throw the entire case out. In a new filing obtained by Pitchfork, the singer doubles down saying that his essay, “speaks for itself,” while classifying his father’s stance as, “statements of opinion, and thus not the proper subjects of a libel claim.” His lawyers also argued that the filing was done outside the applicable statue or limitations and is asking that the court order Ocean’s father to cover all of the singer’s legal fees.
A judge has yet to weigh in on Ocean’s stance.
