The class of John Amaechi

DANGER WILL ROBINSON DANGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think Tim Hardaway's comments are typical of the 70 to 80% of Americans who vote for anti-gay amendments. The Fundies have ratcheted up the vitriol to the point where homophobia has moved so close to the surface that it will take very little for it to break out in physical violence against GLBTQI individuals. And I think we all need to be prepared for a new onslaught of gay hate crimes - especially when the prevailing opinion seems to be saying "Go Tim Go."

I also think the big 4 professional sports need to mandate diversity training big time. But, ultimately, as I've said before, it's going to take the bravery of especially talented out gay youngsters who have come out early and show top skills that cannot be ignored by the big 4.

Conversely, maybe what we need is the gay equivalent of a Billie Jean King/Bobby Riggs match where a gay team beats a straight team at their own game. If Thai lady men can become volleyball champions anything is possible.

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by: Alan down in Florida @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 11:27:55 AM CST

This screenshot...

...was posted on dKos yesterday.  (The poll itself doesn't seem to be online any longer.)

The 29% is sad.  But, yeah, the 15% suggests real danger.  People feeling oppressed because not everyone hates as much as they do?  WTF?

"Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain" -- Iowa state motto

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by: Sportin' Life @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 13:28:35 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Worse yet...

Add the two together, and you get almost half.

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by: xerxes @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 13:46:59 PM CST

[ Parent ]

"I hate homophobes!"

1. I thought Sheryl Swoopes (or some other WNBA player) was the first basketball player to come out of the closet.

2. I wonder what Porno Pete is going to do about this situation regarding Tim Hardaway.  He was disappointed because a gay rights group went after Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillén for calling someone a "fag".

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by: Blood From Machines @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 11:35:16 AM CST

I just read this morning that...

...Petey's busy elsewhere at the moment.

"Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain" -- Iowa state motto

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by: Sportin' Life @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 13:13:35 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Media Condemn Hardaway but Ignore `Gay' Activists' Anti-Christian Hate

By Peter LaBarbera's American's For Truth About Homosexuality: Media Condemn Hardaway but Ignore `Gay' Activists' Anti-Christian Hate

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~~Autumn~~

As if there were safety in stupidity alone.
--Henry David Thoreau

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by: Autumn Sandeen @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 18:08:16 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Good grief, what a jerk

Stop harassing Pam at her place of employment already!

"Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain" -- Iowa state motto

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by: Sportin' Life @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 22:21:07 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Amaechi was on GMA this a.m.

and was very impressive in both the way he articulated his position and in his very classy response to Hardaway's attitude - it makes me interested in reading his book.

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by: kevinbgoode @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 12:16:11 PM CST

Respect, admiration, and gratitude...

...is due those public figures who gracefully accelerate from closeted to national media spokesperson in sixty seconds, so to speak.  (Who the hell wants to have to go on the air to talk about what it feels like to be arbitrarily loathed?)

Thank you John Amaechi.

"Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain" -- Iowa state motto

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by: Sportin' Life @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 13:10:27 PM CST

As I said on my own blog...

The reactionary position like we're seeing on the ESPN message board is typical. We're now to the point where some people immediately will take the antigay position of ANY issue in which there is a gay angle.

Gay couple gets beaten in the Caribbean? Must have been their fault own because of PDAs. Some has-been basketball player say he hates gays? Well, the gays are trying to squelch his and all Christians' right to free speech, and the liberal media prodded him to say it. Gay guy save a baby from a burning building? I'd bet Concerned Women for America would start circulating a press release insinuating that he started the fire in the first place.

This level of hatred is chilling. Disgusting. It shows there are more people in this country who are contemptible than those who are not.

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by: xerxes @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 13:16:09 PM CST

John Amaeche

I'm glad you're on our side.  What a wonderful spokesperson for the glbt community.  I will support you in every way I can.  Thank you.

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by: tlsintx @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 13:24:22 PM CST

I'm meeting him next week

at a dinner.  I can't wait to hear him speak.  He has a heavy job ahead as the HRC spokesman.

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by: torrentprime @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 17:33:48 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Here's an interesting link:

http://www.overtowny...

Now, I'm a huge fan of masculine beauty.  Androgyny is hot..and honest, for women are far more androgynous than they generally reveal.  However, Tim's wife is more androgynous than most and since she was photographed at a fancy function, she was probably femmed up as much as possible.  If Tim Hardaway is drawn to masculine women, I give him kudos, for he has range, but his attraction to his masculine wife might have provoked some whispering and especially in a league where the players popularity and wealth allows them access to the most feminine women, women whose natural attributes have been extended through surgeries and extreme face-painting.

Again, I emphasize that masculine women are hot.  Nicole Simpson had strong masculine skull structure and most folks consider her hot.  However, Tim Hardaway operates in a world where women tease femininity to extremes that would make Tammy Faye blush.

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by: Holly Capote @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 13:35:36 PM CST

Well...

Holly Capote @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 14:35:36 PM EST

Androgyny is hot...

Yes, it is, and if Grace Jones had had the requisite paraphernalia, I might be straight.  Well, kind of straight.

NB: search on ITunes for the artwork for Grace Jones Island Life for the reference.

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by: raj @ Sat Feb 17, 2007 at 09:25:07 AM CST

[ Parent ]

One Of The Great Revelations When I Realized I Was Gay

was that the reason I had always been attracted to mannish women (especially those with strong shoulders) was because I had really wanted a man. Amazing how hindsight can make the obvious expose itself where it has previously hidden.

Our friends at Queerty (which I cannot seem to access at this instant) had a story on Tim Hardaway which points out that in 2001 Outsports.com had done a speculative piece on which NBA players might be gay (assuming a 1 in 10 per team) on which Mr. Amaechi appeared, also had Tim Hardaway as a likely prospect. They also show a picture of him wearing a Donnie Davies-like pink shirt and his name is in a 70s-ish type font that Queerty brands as very gay. Maybe his marriage to an androgynous woman is the same as my dating mannish women (my first girlfriend turned out to be a lesbian - talk about missing the "warning signs" LOL).

Could this account for his vehemence?

Meanwhile down here in South Florida we are trying to organize a boycott and picketting of his businesses.

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by: Alan down in Florida @ Sat Feb 17, 2007 at 11:40:45 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Tammy Faye

I never could figure out when she was blushing for all the blush she was wearing.

Lurleen on Twitter

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by: Lurleen @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 14:14:46 PM CST

What about Rene Portland?

She get some kind of "bye" for basketball bigots?

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by: Wesley Lake @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 14:15:41 PM CST

ESPN report - not all "great," in my opinion

Because of the rather absurd comments about a flamboyant reporter from Out Magazine walking through the locker room asking people who they think is hot.  Or something like that.  I don't know what the hell he was talking about.  I might deduce that somehow he's thought through the scenario of there being non-retired, openly gay players in the NBA, and somehow that image came up.  What that has to do with reality, I don't know.

John Amaechi, though -- beyond great.  This quote...

"Finally, someone who is honest. It is ridiculous, absurd, petty, bigoted and shows a lack of empathy that is gargantuan and unfathomable. "[<--sic?]But it is honest. And it illustrates the problem better than any of the fuzzy language other people have used so far."

...is amazing, particularly the phrase "a lack of empathy that is gargantuan and unfathomable."

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by: KC @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 16:32:16 PM CST

On Bill Maher last night

Bill asked Mr, Amechi if when he was playing he know of any other gay NBAers and whether they formed any kind of unofficial support system for each other. He said yes he knew of others and some became his friends but others would avcid him, pointing out that just being gay was not a sufficient basis for a friendship.

Mr. Amaechi once again came off as being a true class act.

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by: Alan down in Florida @ Sat Feb 17, 2007 at 11:44:14 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Here's a good read:

http://msn.foxsports...

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by: Holly Capote @ Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 21:10:39 PM CST

wow

thanks for that link Holly; it's great!

i love it when haters are honest enough that they are held in public distain.  it is good peer pressure.  and ready an article like this that largely emasculates Hardaway must make young, unsure gay people realize that there are people out there who are going to stick up for them. 

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by: tony @ Sat Feb 17, 2007 at 00:54:58 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Professional anti-gay victims of Hardaway

In the land of absurdity and victimhood over at CWfA, Mattsie is miffed that the outlandishly refreshingly blunt Hardaway statements might hurt professional anti-gay organizations like his -- that lobbies against any advances in LGBT rights 24/7. (365gay):

"Hardaway's comments are both unfortunate and inappropriate...They provide political fodder for those who wish to paint all opposition to the homosexual lifestyle as being rooted in 'hate.'"

But Barber then fires off his own anti-gay broadside.

"It's perfectly natural for people to be repelled by disordered sexual behaviors that are both unnatural, and immoral."

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by: Pam Spaulding @ Sat Feb 17, 2007 at 05:31:05 AM CST

Painting 'em as we see 'em

From the perspective of many millions of people,

"It's perfectly natural [it is?] to be repelled [really - repelled?] by disordered [who says?] sexual behaviors that are both unnatural [are you sure of that?], and immoral [according to whom?]"

is the same statement as

"I hate gay people."

If Hardaway makes organizations in "opposition to the homosexual lifestyle" squirm, that's completely appropriate.

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by: KC @ Sat Feb 17, 2007 at 15:31:26 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Wonkette...

...had a funny headline for that one yesterday: Gay Hater Admonished On Proper Gay-Hating Techniques.

I see that folks have also dug up the old Cosmo spread of Scott Brown.  LOL

"Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain" -- Iowa state motto

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by: Sportin' Life @ Sun Feb 18, 2007 at 00:53:19 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Whoa!!!

I remember sneaking viewings of that "Centerfold Contest" deal in Cosmopolitan magazine in the early 1980s.  I even remember the name "Scott Brown," and his poses.  But I certainly had no idea that the same guy was now a Republican state senator in Massachusetts opposed to gay marriage - ?!?!?  That's difficult for my brain to process.

I wonder if Mr. Showing Off His Pubic Hair in a Magazine justifies his opposition to gay marriage as a matter of morality or tradition.

This sexual teasing and then turning around and opposing gay rights is pretty sick stuff.

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by: KC @ Sun Feb 18, 2007 at 17:00:08 PM CST

[ Parent ]

PS to Pam

While I understand your readership might react in variable ways to see the Cosmo photos of gay marriage opponent Scott Brown, I think this has the makings of an interesting post on the Blend.

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by: KC @ Sun Feb 18, 2007 at 17:03:08 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Look at it a bit differently....

...People in the entertainment industry (and the NBA is nothing more than a part of the entertainment industry) have discovered that outbursts like Hardaway's are bad for the bottom line.  It's OK to be homophobic, but keep it to yourself.  Just as, maybe, it's OK to be anti-Nigger or anti-Kike, but keep it to yourself, and don't interrupt my commerce.

I've never heard of either of these people (John Amaechi or Hardaway) and probably never would have heard of them except for this lil contretemts.  As far as I'm concerned, it's a manufactured issue, manufactured to gain some kind of notoriety, but why, and to whose monetary gain?  I don't know.

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by: raj @ Sat Feb 17, 2007 at 09:19:42 AM CST