Jeff Kent of the Los Angeles Dodgers has given $15,000 to help pass Proposition 8 in California, which would amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage. I had always heard that Kent was a major league jackass and this just confirms it.
In a disclosure filed with the California secretary of state, Kent listed his occupation as professional baseball player for the Dodgers and his address as Austin, Texas. He gave the $15,000 in a transaction dated Monday but which only now is public.
Wrote a gay Dodgers fan on the Los Angeles Times blog that broke the story:
Your donation is a direct slap in the face to the thousands of LGBT Dodgers fans who support you each season. I am deeply saddened that you have chosen to spend so much money to make sure that my family will never enjoy equality.
Recent polls show the proposition is too close to call, with each side’s internal polls showing a dead heat. A new Field Poll (considered the most reliable pollster in the state) has it at 44% Yes and 49% No, but notes that the Yes side is winning among those who have already voted.
One interesting tidbit from the Field Poll: “All age subgroups under age 65 are opposing Prop. 8 by double-digit margins. However, voters 65 and over are strongly in favor of the initiative, backing Prop. 8 by a nearly two to one margin (62% Yes vs. 32% No).”
Related: Type “Jeff Kent” and “asshole” and get Google results.
Related: Help fight Prop 8.
on Oct 31st, 2008 at 6:53 am
Jeff… what are you going to say and do if one of your children or grandchildren comes to you and say… “Daddy, I’m gay!” And then… and then…”Daddy, I’m gay and I love this man/woman and I want to marry him/her?” All your $15 K will have gone gone to naught because you “paid” not to have him/her to be happy in life! Congratulations!
on Oct 31st, 2008 at 9:07 am
Not a surprise at all. Jeff Kent has always been a complete jerk. He’s been known as a cancer on each team he’s ever played on.
on Oct 31st, 2008 at 10:49 am
Last time I checked, it’s a free country. He can do whatever he wants with his money. Realize that first and foremost. Second, if his donation pisses you off, tell the Dodgers about it. Although they’ll likely tell you that his donation is a personal issue and does not reflect the Dodgers in any way.
on Oct 31st, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Albert, Right on, bro! The parents of young kids today will be the parents of the kids of tomorrow who are gonna fall in love with men and women in the same lifetime. Wish I was a fly on the wall for those “coming out” conversations.
on Oct 31st, 2008 at 3:24 pm
This is another example of Jeff Kent being a TOTAL ASSHOLE.
He is the LEAST liked person in EVERY clubhouse he gets moved/traded to.
It wouldn’t suprise me if he is giving BJ’s in Public Bathrooms like Senator Craig.
Karma will catch up with him one day for Sure.
I can’t wait to hear when it does.
I hope EVERYONE DONATES to STOP PROP 8!
This is NOT just a California issue. This will have a HUGE impact on the lives of all Gays and Lesbians across the United States for decades to come.
PLEASE DONATE NOW… WE CAN STILL STOP PROP 8 with your support!
on Oct 31st, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Bill- this is a free country, but in that freedom, why should we just sit back and accept actions which create less freedoms for a marginalized part of society?
I just donated a smaller sum to Vote No on 8. It isn’t my state, but it still effects me. So I will encourage others to donate. If we get enough people, we can override the wealthy assholes who are contributing to this piece of hatred.
on Oct 31st, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Jeff Kent just lost my support and the support of the Dodgers. I will never spend another dime to attend a game again.
on Nov 1st, 2008 at 2:54 am
The only way to fight this kind of thinking is with a boycott of the Los Angeles Dodgers– and all the products and sponsors associated with the team. I am sure, if the team starts losing marketing power, they will quickly jettison the cause: Kent. Also, those sponsors who pay big bucks to endorse the team will put pressure on the team when fans say they will no longer support companies associated with the Dodgers. Let your money do the talking.
on Nov 1st, 2008 at 3:54 am
Go jeff! This is what we need celebrities takin a stand against gay marriage. We don’t future generations to live on a planet where aids is airbourne.
on Nov 1st, 2008 at 4:25 am
To JOHNNY: Get real. AIDs is not airborne you homophobe. Vote No On 8.
on Nov 1st, 2008 at 12:13 pm
As to writiing the Dodgers to protest an individual player’s actions instead of writing Mr. Kent, I would say write both.
But if you only write one, then write Kent. To suggest that he should be ignored in favor of his employer is unfair to both.
The reason he should be written preferably is his status as a high-visibility individual in a widely respected profession. It is not the same as if you or I took a controversially political position.
on Nov 1st, 2008 at 12:28 pm
This is the same jerk that said that Vin Scully “talks too much”. He has no real fans in L.A. although he has always seen himself as a “team leader”. As a Dodger fan, I’ve been embarrassed by his presence here. Although I’m far from being a Barry Bonds supporter the best thing he might have ever done was when he bitch slapped Kent in San Francisco a few years ago.
Oh and by the way Johnny…you’re just an idiot. The world is changing and people like you are becoming fewer and fewer every day. Sorry bud..your time is almost up.
on Nov 2nd, 2008 at 7:08 am
OK, let the flame war begin… but I’m not so sure how I feel about attempts to pressure someone out of his job simply because we disagree with his non-work-related beliefs or actions. Yes, supporting Proposition 8 - intellectually or financially - is hateful and moronic beyond belief, but there’s still something unsettling about applying to others a tactic that’s been used to drum so many of US out of a living (from McCarthy-era national panics over gay government employees, on down to individual jackass bosses in the private marketplace in states without employment discrimination protection for LGBTQ’s).
Personally, I’d prefer to confront this jerk directly on the substance of his position (which, of course, we’re already doing, in part, with our exchanges of views here on the Internet). Let’s speak out as to how and why his beliefs are wrong in and of themselves, and leave his personal affairs out of it. (Especially since we’re talking about that most essential of personal affairs - the ability to pay one’s bills by engaging in one’s chosen vocation. The guy’s job is to smack a ball around, not to be a public saint. Not everyone is going to agree with everything one says or does in the course of one’s personal life - and by behaving as if these inevitable human disagreements merit job loss, we’re opening up a Pandora’s box that might end up dumping on our own heads at some point. Economic retribution for personal disagreement is a sword that cuts both ways…)
It’s better for us in the long run, too - because it takes away vital ammunition from the various conservative loonies who enjoy miscasting queer folks as pressure groups out for special rights (rather than what we really are, everyday people who are just sick of SUB-equal treatment.)
on Nov 3rd, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Does anybody have an e-mail address where I can leave a message for Asshole Jeff Kent?