It’s not a good day to be Paris Hilton. The reality TV star is under fire over some rather distasteful comments she made about gay men.

An audio tape featuring the controversial remarks was leaked on Thursday morning. ”Gay guys are the horniest people in the world … they’re disgusting,” Hilton can be heard saying. “Dude, most of them probably have AIDS. I would be so scared if I was a gay guy … you’ll like die of AIDS.”

The shocking comments were made earlier this month in New York during a conversation with a gay friend, Hilton’s rep claims.

“Paris Hilton’s comments were to express that it is dangerous for anyone to have unprotected sex that could lead to a life threatening disease. The conversation became heated, after a close gay friend told her in a cab ride, a story about a gay man who has AIDS and is knowingly having unprotected sex. He also discussed a website that encourages random sex by gay men with strangers.”

“As she was being shown the website her comments were in reference to those people promoting themselves on the site. The cab driver who recorded this, only provided a portion of the conversation. It was not her intent to make any derogatory comments about all gays,” the rep continues.

“Paris Hilton is a huge supporter of the gay community and would never purposefully make any negative statements about anyone’s sexual orientation.”

Hilton was the Grand Marshal at LA’s Gay Pride Parade in 2005, but it’s going to take a little more than this statement to smother the fire this tape has started.