The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation — the nation’s leading gay rights group — is taking celebrity blogger Perez Hilton to task for using antigay slurs against Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am following an altercation between the two at Sunday night’s MuchMusic Video Awards in Toronto.

“I don’t need to respect you, and you’re a fag. You’re gay, and stop being such a faggot,” the openly gay spat in a videoblog response to reports of a fight with will.i.am after last night’s show.

Regardless of who hit who, GLAAD is none to pleased with Perez’s flamboyant use of the word “faggot.”

“These are vulgar antigay slurs that feed a climate of hatred and intolerance toward our community,” Rashad Robinson, senior director of Media Programs at GLAAD, said in a statement to E! late Monday. “For someone in our own community to use it to attack another person by saying that it is ‘The worst possible thing that thug would ever want to hear,’ is incredibly dangerous.”

“It legitimizes use of a slur that is often linked to violence against our community. And it sends a message that it is OK to attempt to dehumanize people by exploiting antigay attitudes,” Robinson continued.

GLAAD is calling upon Perez to apologize for using the slur.

“We have reached out to Hilton and asked him to apologize for promoting this antigay slur, and we would ask media outlets to avoid repetition of the slur in their coverage of this story. While not all the facts in this case are known, the violence that appears to have been committed against Perez Hilton is unacceptable and ought to be condemned in the strongest possible terms,” the statement continued.

Perez claims he was beaten to a pulp by will.i.am and one of the Peas’ managers, Polo Molina, 36. Molina has been charged with one count of assault and ordered to appear in court August 5.

For his part, Will has denied any wrongdoing.

“This dude twists it and says that I assaulted him,” will.i.am said of Perez in a video rebuttal of his own early Monday. “When I was the one that came to him with respect and he was the one who called me a [faggot] outside the club.”

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has issued a public statement denouncing Will Smith’s new movie, Hancock, for homophobia.

Organization bosses have branded scene from the scene in which Will uses the term “homo” as a “cheap, unfunny shot at gay people.” Adding “the slur sends a message that it’s okay to discriminate against gay people.”

Barbara Walters was honored by gay media group GLAAD for her 2007 20/20 report My Secret Self: A Story of Transgender Children on Monday night.

“You can forget all the Emmys,” Babs said while accepting the honor at 19th annual Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Awards. “This means more to me.”