In the words of Heather Dubrow on The Real Housewives Of Orange County, "If everyone says you're dead, it's time to lie down."

Perhaps hotelier Ian Reisner should heed such advice, instead of choosing to speak out against a community he counts himself a member of.

To recap: Real-estate investor Ian Reisner and his business partner (and former lover) Mati Weiderpass hosted a "fireside chat" for a dozen people at their Central Park duplex on April 20th. Among the attendees was Republican Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz, an outspoken opposer to same sex marriage.

[caption id="attachment_198227" align="alignnone" width="600"] Senator Ted Cruz (L) and Mati Weiderpass (R)[/caption]

In the aftermath, crowds gathered outside the Out NYC to protest, Broadway Cares and the New York City Gay Men's Chorus canceled their fundraisers at the hotel and the AIDS Walk "PEP" Rally was relocated to nearby Stage 48.

After receiving vocal outcry from the gay community, Reisner issued an apology last week to the New York Times, stating, “I was ignorant, naïve and much too quick in accepting a request to co-host a dinner with Cruz at my home without taking the time to completely understand all of his positions on gay rights."

He continued: “I’ve spent the past 24 hours reviewing videos of Cruz’s statements on gay marriage and I am shocked and angry. I sincerely apologize for hurting the gay community and so many of our friends, family, allies, customers and employees. I will try my best to make up for my poor judgment. Again, I am deeply sorry.”

On Friday, the duo took their damage control tour to New York Magazine in an attempt to set the record "straight." The interview started off with the NY Mag reporter asking if this was where Cruz had sat.

Reisner: This is the crime scene. Yellow ribbon.

Weiderpass: A friend of mine, when he saw the article, said, “Wait a minute, don’t you remember when I came over, it was several years ago, and we had a game of Twister in the same exact spot?” And it was actually a game of naked Twister.

Reisner: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let’s not go there.

Instead, Reisner decided to go elsewhere, calling out the gay community.

You know, it’s so ironic—I wanted to build kind of a community center in the gateway to Hell’s Kitchen, which in 2008–2009 was already a gay place and now it’s even gayer. Very close to Broadway. We decided there’d be so many different ways to give back to the community. We show gay artists there. For gay performers, we have let this cabaret club go on for three and a half years. And you don’t make money when you let drag queens in on Tuesday night and 30 people drink at $10 a drink and you have to pay five people to watch over the place. You don’t make money... My only point is, this has not been a profitable venture. Gays are cheap. They’re frugal; gays are frugal. Let me retract that… gays are entitled… Do you know how challenging it is to make a penny off a gay person? I’m gay, I don’t pay cover. I’m gay, where’s my comp drink? [Everyone laughs.] No, I’m being serious! The Out NYC has not shown a profit yet...

Reisner ended the interview revealing, "The hate against us is so strong, for me, it literally makes me weep. That there’s a vast group of gay folks in America that don’t know what I have done for the gay cause, consistently for decades, and now think I’m anti-gay. There’s such a massive divide between the reality of what we do, did and do, and their limited thinking of what we do because of a few facts and a few headlines."

What do you think? Has Reisner been falsely villainized or should his feet continue to be held to the flames? Weigh in below in the comments section.