Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller came into the conscience of many gay people when he pulled Brokeback Mountain from the movie theaters he owned. Now comes news that Miller has had both of his legs amputated 6 inches below the knee due to complications related to diabetes. Many have wondered what he may have said about Milk this year, but he hasn’t been in front of the cameras or a microphone for several months.
on Jan 30th, 2009 at 4:47 PM
Just a heads-up: I live in Salt Lake City, and shortly after the Brokeback brouhaha, Larry actually had a discussion/round table with area gay young adults … during the meeting it was made clear that Larry’s not so much a hater as he is ill-informed.
on Jan 30th, 2009 at 4:58 PM
Looks like that angry vengeful christian god is at it again. If it were Zeus; he would have burnt him up with a bolt of lightning.
on Jan 30th, 2009 at 9:19 PM
OK, come on. The guy just had both of his lower legs amputated. He’s old and I’m guessing he was raised Mormon. It’s hard to overcome your upbringing. He’s probably never had an out gay friend or family member and he probably thinks homosexuality is a temptation some people have that they shouldn’t give in to. He didn’t spew any hate speech like Tim Hardaway. The older people are, the less I hold anti-gay prejudice against them. What he did with Brokeback Mountain was wrong, but he didn’t deserve this.
on Jan 30th, 2009 at 11:15 PM
Shame on Outsports. I’m all for taking people to task for homophobia – but running a headline titled, “Anti-Gay jazz Owner has Legs Amputated” is a disgrace. Whoever wrote that headline should immediately resign from Outsports and go to work for the NY Post. He/she would fit in quite nicely at the Post.
on Jan 31st, 2009 at 12:05 AM
Actually the Post’s headline would read: Grumpy Dumpy Now Stumpy.
on Jan 31st, 2009 at 12:58 AM
Mike, you’re mistaken. I correctly used an upper-case J for Jazz and lower case G, O, L and A to fit our style.
Please, what is so offensive about that title? It is 100% accurate and I don’t offer any opinion in the piece of the headline. Please, tell me what is so wrong. I’m curious.
on Jan 31st, 2009 at 1:28 AM
God wanted to make sure he would stop dancing to selections of “A Chorus Line” while nobody was looking.
on Jan 31st, 2009 at 2:46 AM
Ugly. There is enough hate and meanness in the world. It is not what many of us want to see here. As much as I deplore the views of this person, I do not have it in me to mock, make light of, take joy in or taunt him in his pain right now. The way to a more human world is to act more human – even to those who you feel are as wrong as they can be. One of the things I like about President Obama is the way he is trying to elevate the nature of our civil dialogue, Maybe it should be tried here.
on Jan 31st, 2009 at 2:46 AM
Such a drastically devastating medical disability has to elicit a good deal of empathy for anyone so afflicted. The gay community knows all too well how the likes of Eddie Murphy joked about AIDS when the HIV Epidemic was reaching its apex of immediate widespread death. Even were the likes of Fred Phelps to contract such a disfiguring ailment as has Larry Miller, I would hope that gay folks would rise above the low brow vituperations of such a despicably hurtful hate monger as Phelps, and refrain from gloating as he would about such a random illness, being that all illnesses are way more random than God-ordained. The despicable acts of a homophobe should not be the rationalization of why fickle fate has chosen a debilitating illness to be their future as opposed to a retired life of ease & comfort. The “religulous” condemnations of self-righteously deluded “vengeful God’s retribution” proponents are as baseless as saying that birth defects are equally “God’s retribution” for the wrongs of the parents. We’re better than that, aren’t we?
on Jan 31st, 2009 at 10:44 AM
We all eventually get what we deserve. No more no less.
on Jan 31st, 2009 at 12:44 PM
I’m so interested in the responses here, and the ones we’ve gotten via email. I personally feel bad for the man and do not wish him harm. I posted the story because he’s a person of interest to our readers and the story was widely reported. We didn’t “mock, make light of, take joy in or taunt him in his pain.” So why the venom pointed at us for simply posting a story? I’m so curious.
on Jan 31st, 2009 at 1:59 PM
I didn’t take the post as malicious. The dude did make the papers because he is a public figure as a wealthy pro-sports team owner who pulled the “homo cowboy movie” (as my preacher brother-in-law calls BB Mtn.) from his theaters and got some backlash for it. That’s news to us.
This guy can afford the best medical care in the world and still lost his legs. If anything this should be a reminder to be sure to take care of your health. I have family and friends w/diabetes it’s a super nasty disease and tough to manage properly and live a ‘normal’ life. Leading cause of impotence, blindness, renal failure and digit/limb amputation is diabetes. It nibbles away at you and significantly shortens your life span and quality of life. I just don’t want any of you to loose your wood.
on Jan 31st, 2009 at 4:30 PM
As I recall, Larry Miller wasn’t against adultry as a young man in his 20′s, 30′s and 40′s.
on Feb 1st, 2009 at 3:10 AM
Hey there, Cyd Zeigler, Jr., dude! Please don’t think that I regret you posting this relevant story, nor do I wish you to be the recipient of any venom. This was yet another example of your widespread comprehension of news relevant to gay sports fans, myself most grateful for being within the scope of your influence. The vituperation I wrote against was for anyone who would gloat over the random misfortune of another as if they (or anyone, for that matter, similarly afflicted by bad luck) somehow got their comeuppance. Magical thinking, either to the gay community’s benefit or detriment, must be pointed out to be childish nonsense that all of us humans had better fight against unless we want to be treated as children under some paternal, maternal, or theocratic dictatorship. Please keep to your journalistic gut instincts & keep those surprisingly relevant articles coming!
on Feb 1st, 2009 at 11:54 AM
Unfortunately, amputation seems to be all too common with diabetes. My brother’s father-in-law had his foot amputated because it was infected and was taking a toll on his whole body. Diabetes is definitely something to worry about as you get older.
on Feb 2nd, 2009 at 2:51 PM
I get that this is an owner of a sports team who made homophobic remarks, thus making him a newsworthy story for this website, but there is something vindictive and just downright low class about an article highlighting his amputation. It almost seems as if there is an element of “thats what he gets for dissin the gays” in the reporting of it.
on Feb 2nd, 2009 at 6:41 PM
Cyd, while I certainly don’t agree with Mr. Miller’s politics or his pulling Brokeback Mountain from his theaters, including the label “Anti-gay” in the headline with the news he just had his legs amputated just didn’t sit well with me. “Anti-gay” is not a neutral or friendly descriptor. In essence it calls the man out. Which in other circumstances, I’d support 100%. But on the day he just had his legs amputated it reads/sounds wrong to me. Not sure I can explain it any better than that.
on Feb 21st, 2009 at 9:20 AM
Miller died yesterday.
on Mar 12th, 2012 at 12:56 PM
You’re the worst writer