In school systems, we install the MLMP club program first into a high school. From there, the high school kids adopt a Jr. high and elementary school. This involves the high school students going into each school one time each month to teach them a different lesson. There are 8 lessons totaling one per month for the academic school year. This can be at lunchtime or after school for 30-60 minutes depending on what works best for the individual school’s MLMP Club.

The organization is hosting a charity concert in Los Angeles on Thursday. You can find more information in their press release.

When: November 3, 2011
Where: Good Hurt Nightclub: 12249 Venice Boulevard, West Los Angeles, 90066
Red Carpet: 9:30 P.M. – 10:00 P.M.
Concert: 10:00 P.M. – 2:00 A.M.

You can find more info at the My Life My Power Facebook page.

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Dana White

Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, both apologized (again) for his past homophobic comments while encouraging gay fighters to come out.

“I’ll tell you right now, if there was a gay fighter in UFC, I wish he would come out,” he said. “I could care less if there’s a gay fighter in the UFC. There probably is and there’s probably more than one.”

White is under fire from the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 in Las Vegas, which wants sponsors — including Fox TV — to stop supporting the UFC. The union on its website Unfit For Children listed several instance of homophobic or sexist remarks by White or those affiliated with the UFC.

“If you guys look at all the stuff that I’ve said over the last 10 years — some of it stupid, some of it whatever — that’s the one that bothers me,” White said. “That’s the only one that bothers me — the fact that these losers from the Culinary Union can go out and say that I’m a homophobe and things like that — because it’s the furthest thing from the truth.” …

“You’re dealing with human beings. Everybody makes mistakes and everybody does things that are wrong sometimes. … We do the best we can do. How do you really think that we could possibly police 375 fighters and try to control everything they say?”

White is a guy all over the map on gay issues. He has used homophobic language, then issued what Cyd called a “hollow apology.” He also has not punished UFC people who have used homophobic slurs. At the same time, he has said the UFC would embrace a gay fighter.

The union, which has separate reasons involving organizing workers for its pressure on the UFC, is nonetheless holding White accountable. Somebody has to. White has tremendous power to discipline fighters who make homophobic remarks and simply crying that you’re not a homophobe doesn’t go far enough.

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Instead of manning up and owning the fact that he was calling the comment gay (as in homosexual), he’s trying to hide behind the Wikipedia page for the word “gay”:

To say the term “gay” doesn’t refer to gay people is so absurd it almost doesn’t warrant a response. Almost. The whole reason the word became a pejorative was because calling someone gay (as in homosexual) was the worst thing you could call them. I highly doubt Bisping’s use of “gay” meant that he was calling Sonnen’s comment “strong” or “masculine.”

It’s a shame Bisping’s too much of a coward to just admit he meant what he said.

Hat tip to Cage Potato via Towleroad.

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I have no prejudice against the gays, but I wouldn’t train with someone who’s gay. I have no malice, I don’t take our physical contact as (something) sexual. But what if the gay person has that malice of having physical contact with me, of staying there grappling? I would have no problems having a gay student in my academy, but I would rather not train with him.

Ah yes. He has no prejudice. He just doesn’t want a gay person touching him. Chances are, he’s already fought and trained with a gay fighter

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ESPN.com photo

The UFC has banned its fighters from wearing Speedos into the ring after Dennis Hallman wore one in UFC 133 Saturday night. In fact, UFC President Dana White gave a $70,000 bonus to Hallman’s opponent Brian Ebersole for knocking him out in the first round and thereby sparing the fainthearted babies who apparently watch the UFC and couldn’t bear to see a man in a Speedo.

Hallman said he wore the attire (I can’t tell if it’s an actual Speedo-brand suit or not but it’s become generic usage for that type of cut) after he lost a bet. White is acting like such a wuss about this that he is threatening to fire UFC employees who work backstage and allowed Hallman into the ring.

“I’m seriously pissed off at the guys who work for us who let him walk out with those things on,” White said. “I’ve never been so embarrassed to be in the UFC.”

Later, he said he was “horrified” by the moment.

“It was as bad as bad can get,” he said, shaking his head.

Hallman said that maybe White “didn’t like the blue,” and he then couldn’t resist getting a bit down into what seems to be some homophobia.

As a few astute TV viewers noticed, Hallman’s short shorts inadvertently exposed the family jewels during one ground scramble. Still, he’s a little shocked that the whole episode has taken on a life of its own, especially since he said the shorts aren’t banned.

“People are sick, disgusting perverts,” Hallman said. “They’ll break the film down frame-by-frame so they can get a little ball action. That’s kind of strange. They have problems.”

Can someone please enlightened me as to why this is such a big deal? Many UFC fighters wear what amounts to skin-tight bikini briefs and they participate in a sport where the goal is to beat the crap out of someone. I did find it funny, though, that Hallman tried to get Ebersole in a “rear naked choke.” No homo.

I posted this item on Outsports’ Facebook page (feel free to join) and there was this great comment:

Nearly naked male bodies mashing around in sweat and blood in a room full of mostly men = good and not gay. Man wearing something akin to a Speedo and spectators can’t keep their eyes off his crotch = bad. And of course their eyes looking at his crotch = his fault.

Hat tip to Ross Forman.

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Start typing in “Jake Shields” into Google and the second recommendation is “Jake Shields gay.” “Georges St. Pierre gay” yields several pages of search results. The humorous part of this is how flimsy the “evidence” is and that it says a lot about stereotypes.

Jake Shields is gay, apparently, since photos surfaced of him looking like he and a dude were giving each other tongue baths. That’s it. Some photos in a club. As for St. Pierre, his gayness comes from having a French Canadian accent and being hot and into fashion. Under that criteria, a lot of guys in Montreal are gay.

These rumor threads are fairly common on many MMA sites, but what I find heartening is how they mostly elicit a  shrug or some funny comments, nothing really homophobic. One guy said he was straight but that he would “go gay for GSP.” And the majority of people say they really don’t care.

Stereotypes by their nature have some truth to them, and mixed martial arts by its nature lends itself to certain assumptions. As DJ wrote about the sport’s homoerotic appeal: “Where else could you get another man’s crotch shoved in your face all the while entertaining millions?” Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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In his post “UFC should shut down homophobic slurs,” Smith wrote:

The biggest and best mixed martial arts organization in the world needs to tell its fighters, staff and other employees that in 2011, homophobic slurs aren’t acceptable, and that those who can’t or won’t refrain from using such language are going to face serious consequences. And the UFC certainly shouldn’t feature the use of homophobic slurs in promotional materials like this video blog on the UFC’s own YouTube channel. …

I’ve heard all the explanations and excuses and the reasons for why people who use homophobic slurs say the word doesn’t really mean anything bad about gay people. Nonsense. These slurs aren’t acceptable, and they need to stop.

When Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Joey Porter used a homophobic slur toward an opponent in 2006, the NFL fined him $10,000. Why doesn’t the UFC similarly crack down on its athletes who cross the line?

The irony here is that UFC head Dana White has said the UFC would embrace a gay fighter. Why, so his sexual orientation becomes fodder for pre-fight promotion? Smith is 100% spot-on, though many of the commenters on his post showed their own homophobia by questioning Smith’s sexual orientation and generally sounding like a bunch of morons.

Video (the anti-gay slur occurs around the 5:55 mark):

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Anybody that’s getting bullied in the whole U.S. can shoot me an email at dp@knockoutsgym.com. … You email me, I’ll go fly to your school … and we’ll go talk to the bullies for you.

On his Facebook page, Puder had written: “There is an issue with our society when gay young kids are getting bullied to the point they are killing themselves.” He is using his status to now try and make a difference. Since his contact information was posted on TMZ he has received thousands of e-mails from victims of bullies. During an MSNBC interview he said he wants to formulate an anti-bullying plan once he returns from wrestling in Japan.

I do not know Puder’s sexual orientation — his Facebook page says he’s interested in men and women — but no matter. As an MMA fighter he can reach a demographic that other anti-bullying advocates can’t and I applaud him for taking a stand.

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“This is real, this isn’t like the WEC trying to get us to you know to amp it up, which I’m not. He’s really a fag. I mean, that’s what he is, you know, and his true colors will show up. You can’t hide your colors, man. They’re going to turn up and everyone’s going to see. He’s going to call timeout or he’s going to look for a way out, he’s got the bitch gene, man, and when you have a bitch gene it don’t matter what you do you can’t fight and you’re either born with it and that’s who you are as a person and you can’t fix that, you know, and it’s going to come out. …

So, I hope my emotions take over and I just kill this dude. I hope this is the first death in MMA.”

Of course, once the you-know-what hit the fan, Cerrone then backtracked, sending this tweet:

I don’t really wish death on anyone!! Just got caught up in talking s***! My apologies @jamievarner! Took it to far

World Extreme Cagefighting officials condemned Cerrone’s remarks:

“We will not tolerate a fighter who makes comments that are not consistent with our company values, nor will we tolerate the use of slurs that may offend any segment of the public. We are aware Donald issued his own immediate apology on Twitter, but we still needed to speak with him about it, and to issue our own statement making our position known.”

For his part, Varner took the high road, saying the issue would be settled in the ring. Varner beat Cerrone in their previous fight in what was a controversial decision.

I understand many fighters are morons who say crap like this all the time to get attention. But we at Outsports are always going to call them on it and not give anyone a pass due to their lack of brain cells. I hope that one day Cerrone gets submitted in the ring by a guy who then gets a congratulatory kiss from his boyfriend. He’d probably retire in humiliation.

Update: Cerrone won the rematch via  a unanimous decision.

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I am a black man from Memphis Tennessee who grew up in the south where I faced discrimination my whole life. I know very well how it feels for someone to judge you for something you have no control over so having gone through that I know how it feels. I took a vow that I didn’t even have to say that I would never discriminate against anybody for anything other that how they treat me or others around them. So not only DO I NOT HATE gay people, I actually accept them for who and what they are.

He even said he was helping a friend promote a gay bar.

Some will continue to attack him for his “that’s so gay” comment. And I understand that. But it sounds to me like this guy isn’t a raging homophobe, and we have bigger fish to fry.

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