This is not an article from the Onion. There actually is a Catholic group called Courage that is holding a sports weekend as a way for men to channel their same-sex urges into more manly pursuits. From the Philadelphia Daily News: This weekend a group of men will gather at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary to [...]
Posts under ‘Homophobia’
Gays and sports bring religious zealots to Outsports
Visitors to Outsports recently may have thought they had stumbled across the Focus on the Family website by accident, given all the comments by anti-gay religious zealots. I expect this whenever we write about Tim Tebow — he has a passionate fundamentalist fan base, which takes umbrage to anything negative written about him, even if [...]
IOC asked to consider gay rights as part of Olympics invites
British human rights lawyer and writer Mark Stephens has written a provocative article arguing that LGBT rights be the centerpiece of the London Olympics. Nations that still criminalize homosexuality should be banned by the International Olympic Committee, he argues, just like South Africa was under apartheid until 1992. He writes in the Guardian: When people [...]
Pittsburgh Penguins Brooks Orpik delivers powerful You Can Play video
What I like most about the 30-second video done for the You Can Play project by Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik is that it’s just him speaking into the camera. The result is a simple but powerful message about inclusion in the sport. Says Orpik in the video: What matters to me and my teammates? [...]
Fearless campaign photos stolen at Bryant University
Avery Stone, an out lesbian hockey player at Amherst College, tells the story of visiting Bryant University recently to speak about her participation in Jeff Sheng’s Fearless campaign photo series. Before she got to her speaking engagement, someone at the school had stolen all of Sheng’s photos from the exhibit. Stone writes about her feelings [...]
Manny Pacquiao takes swings against same-sex marriage
Boxer Manny Pacquiao, one of the most influential athletes in America, had some harsh words after President Obama announced his personal support for same-sex marriage. The boxing champ, who is also an elected congressman in the Philippines, bases his opposition to same-sex marriage on the Bible. Pacquiao, bearing a conservative stance on the Reproductive Bill [...]
Pro wrestler CM Punk apologizes for telling N.C. Amendment One supporter to kill himself
Pro wrestler CM Punk supports gay marriage and is opposed to North Carolina’s Amendment One, which would ban gay marriage and civil unions (and which passed today). But he apologized for telling a homophobe on Twitter who said gays made him “sick” to “kill yourself.” From the Daily Mirror: CM Punk tweeted: “Same sex marriage [...]
Ron Brown writes letter to fans, won’t publicly testify against gay protection
Nebraska assistant football coach Ron Brown will not testify when the Lincoln City Council holds its hearing on an ordinance to ban anti-LGBT discrimination. For this one moment, Brown has caved to pressure from fair-minded people who believe someone in his position should not be vocally advocating for discrimination. Still, he says he is just [...]
Friday media watch: Ron Brown gears up for anti-gay preaching in Lincoln on Monday?
On Monday, May 7, the Lincoln City Council will hold a hearing on an ordinance that would make it illegal to fire someone because they are L, G, B or T. At the center of the battle over the law will be Nebraska running backs coach Ron Brown, who in March drove to Omaha to [...]
Anheuser-Busch tells UFC to stop the anti-gay and sexist language
Anheuser-Busch has told Ultimate Fighting Championship to curtail the sexist and homophobic language of their fighters, or they will take action. Budweiser’s parent company is a huge sponsor of UFC. They told Advertising Age in a statement: “We’ve communicated to the UFC our displeasure with certain remarks made by some of its fighters, and they have [...]
More anti-gay discrimination coming soon from Ron Brown as Lincoln considers LGBT protection
In March, Nebraska assistant football coach Ron Brown drove 60 miles to another city to pressure their city council against protecting gay people from discrimination in the workplace. He failed. Now his own city of Lincoln is considering a similar ordinance that would make it illegal to fire someone from being gay. Batten down the [...]
Oakland A’s pitcher Brandon McCarthy takes stronger stand for gays, against homophobia
Oakland A’s pitcher Brandon McCarthy has expounded on his stance against homophobia. He previously tweeted about seeing the Kiss Cam mock gay people. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Gwen Knapp covered his latest comments with a great column: “There’s that stupid, little comedic value of it if you don’t really think about what it implies,” he [...]
Nebraska coach Ron Brown would be “honored” if he was fired for his opposition to gays
Nebraska assistant football coach Ron Brown said he’ll keep speaking out against gays, even if it costs him his job, but his bosses support him. Brown said in an interview with The Associated Press that “to be fired for my faith would be a greater honor than to be fired because we didn’t win enough [...]
Baseball player Reggie Williams: Gays an abomination and are like crack smokers, but I don’t hate them
Reggie Williams hopes to play pro baseball, though he was released in spring training and is without a team. He has succeeded in one area — taking the early lead for Outsports jerk of the year for a series of tweets that are offensive, idiotic, ignorant and unintentionally comical at the same time. Deadspin has [...]
Brandon McCarthy, Oakland A’s pitcher, against gay Kiss Cam ‘jokes’
Oakland A’s pitcher Brandon McCarthy tweeted that he’s tired of Kiss Cams focusing on two guys kissing. At first blush, it might look like Brandon McCarthy is homophobic; In reality, he’s tired of society laughing at gay men and is fighting against the subversive homophobia that locks the Kiss Cam on two (presumably) straight men [...]
Former pro soccer player Paul Elliott takes aim at homophobia
Since a premature retirement in 1994, English pro soccer player Paul Elliott has worked to fight the racism he faced as a player. Now he’s turning his attention to the next big issue facing soccer. He was asked by FIFA.com: “Where do you see the next challenge for football in fighting discrimination?” Homophobia is a [...]
Tar Heel athletes come together to make North Carolina It Gets Better video
Athletes from the University of North Carolina, including those from football and baseball, have join forces to make a video for the It Gets Better Project. The video was started by our good friend Dave Lohse, Associate Athletic Communications Director, himself openly gay. It was not a hard sell, Lohse told Outsports. The genesis of [...]
Story of anti-gay joke shows the power of casual homophobia
Dave Bossmin says he’s an openly gay amateur hockey player on a gay team…and a closeted hockey player on his “straight” team. He wrote a guest editorial for Xtra! in which he tells a story of why he isn’t out to his “straight” team. A league official entered while our team was getting cleaned up. [...]
Roddy White isn’t really sorry for anti-gay tweet
Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Roddy White says he is sorry for a tweet where he says he doesn’t want to be gay, but he really isn’t sorry based on followup tweets where he makes light of the whole thing. White got in a Twitter spat after a fan asked him whether he would rather win [...]
Roddy White doesn’t want to be gay
Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Roddy White was asked by a fan whether he would rather lead the league in receiving stats or win a Super Bowl. Some people may say that’s “easy as pie,” or it might be a “piece of cake.” Some may say the issue is “black and white.” White thinks it’s as [...]