Tag: LGBT ally

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Henry Rollins on the misguided outrage by the losers of DOMA demise

Henry Rollins explains to anti-gay haters that this year's 16 year olds will be voting in two years. And they don't like hate.
Henry Rollins

Henry Rollins, writing for LA Weekly, addresses the opponents of marriage equality who lost their minds over the fall of DOMA last week:

“Bad News for the Haters Dept.: You realize that all those obnoxious 16-year-olds you see everywhere, texting their friends who are standing next to them, will be able to vote in the 2016 elections. Do you think you will be able to sell them on your anti-gay/anti-woman/anti-brown/black platform? Do you think they want to end up like you? I bet they don’t. Gov. Bobby Jindal said that you all have to stop being the stupid party. I don’t think you can do it. How did equality become political? Because you can’t handle science, change or the truth. America is on the move, you are not.”

[snip]

“The demise of DOMA, while great, is also a smack to the hornet’s nest and there will be a whirlwind to reap, so please, prepare for many challenges up the road. The pushback will be considerable. America is changing and, historically, we don’t handle it well.

“The Supreme Court’s DOMA decision was good, but the best part of the story is how it got to their door. That was you and me never shutting up, never relenting and never being satisfied for too long.”

Read the entire essay at LA Weekly

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Australian campaign to fight bullying and homophobia – “Year 7 Self”

Minus18 is Australia’s largest support network for gay, bisexual, lesbian and trans teenagers from all over Australia.

Minus18 has begun a new campaign called “Year 7 Self” that features heterosexual Aussies talking to their 7 year old selves regarding regret over not being more supportive of their LGBT friends who came out, and the value of those friendships as they grew older.

As the  Year 7 Self website states, “Just because we’re straight, doesn’t mean we have to be narrow. You might not know it now, but you’re going to have people in your life who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans… And that’s a pretty awesome thing.”

Check out the video above then head over to the website here.

(h/t Advocate)

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Joe Namath to LGBT haters – “Get over it”

Joe Namath on HuffPost Live says he has no problem with gays in sports. And those who do?

“I have friends that are gay. I’ve worked in theater, I’ve been in art, you know, for some time. We work shoulder to shoulder. There’s a lot of love from me to them, too. That’s life, you know. And if you’ve got a hangup about it, I hope you can get over it because it’s real.”

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Billionaire Mark Cuban joins advisory board of Athlete Ally

Athlete Ally announces via press release that Dallas Mavericks owner and philanthropist Mark Cuban has joined the advisory board of their organization which looks to fight homophobia in sports.

Cuban, an advocate of LGBT rights and gay inclusion in the NBA, has said he would be honored to have an openly gay player on the Mavericks. Cuban will advise Athlete Ally on its programming to help make sports a more welcoming environment for both LGBT athletes and fans.

“It’s a new world. Everyone should know that they can be themselves in sports. Leagues like the NBA, their teams and players have a great opportunity to set an example and spread a message to people who are either LGBT or straight that our culture should be celebrated for diversity and individual authenticity.”

ATHLETE ALLY encourages all individuals involved in sports to respect every member of their communities, regardless of perceived or actual sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, and to lead others in doing the same.

Read more at Athlete Ally

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Oprah Super Soul Sunday

Gay marriage was the topic Sunday on Super Soul Sunday: The Bigger Picture, the Oprah Winfrey Networks’s roundtable panel hosted by Oprah Winfrey herself.

Oprah hosts three guests and discusses the “dominance of marriage equality” and what it could mean for marriage in America.

Oprah’s guests included Los Angeles episcopal priest, Reverend Ed Bacon, Elizabeth Lesser, founder of the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in New York and author of Broken Open, and poet/philosopher Mark Nepo.

We need to see more intelligent people having these discussions. THIS helps society.

(h/t OnTop)

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Chris Kluwe, NFL punter & LGBT ally signed by Oakland raiders

NFL punter and LGBT ally Chris Kluwe has been signed by the Oakland Raiders, FOX Sports reports:

“Kluwe, who was released by the Minnesota Vikings on May 6, will step in for Pro Bowler Shane Lechler, who left Oakland for the Houston Texans via free agency. Kluwe’s contract is for one year, and is for the league minimum.”

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Quote of the day: Chris Kluwe

Chris Kluwe, NFL kicker and LGBT ally, was cut this week by the Minnesota Vikings after 8 seasons amid talk that his support for the LGBT community was becoming a “distraction.”  In typical Kluwe style, Chris had this to say to the Huffington Post about choosing to play football or speaking out for something he believes in:

“I love football, I love playing football but at the end of the day, it is a children’s game that grown men play.

“If I can speak out on something, especially something that affects millions of lives and causes young kids to kill themselves – if I can speak out on that and help one of those young kids realize that you don’t have to take that step, to me that’s worth far more than anything that I could gain from football.

“I think all that we’re asking and all that any athlete is asking, straight or gay, is judge that person by what they can do on the field. Not by who they are, not by what their beliefs are or the color of their skin. Judge them by their playing abilities.”

(Via JMG)

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Minnesota: Is the Vikings Chris Kluwe on the “cut” list?

On Saturday, the Minnesota Vikings drafted UCLA punter Jeff Locke in the fifth round.  Some see this as writing on the wall that the Vikings current kicker (and LGBT ally), Chris Kluwe, may be on his way out, and that the reason for his exit will be “distractions” related to activism for LGBT civil rights, NBC Sports’ Mike Florio reports:

Of course, the distractions weren’t a problem when Kluwe was staying up very late playing Guitar Hero and Worlds of Warcraft, or staying out very late on Friday night doing shows with his band.  After Kluwe opted to get behind a controversial social cause while also getting to bed at a decent hour, the team opted to acquire a player who, given that he was selected in round five, will likely have the field tilted in his favor when it comes to determining whether he or Kluwe gets the Water Pik.

Kluwe told Florio: “It’s a shame that in a league with players given multiple second chances after arrests, including felony arrests, that speaking out on human rights has a chance of getting you cut,” Kluwe told PFT via text message.

(via Towleroad)

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Super Bowl champ & LGBT ally Scott Fujita retires from NFL

FujitaNFL linebacker, Super Bowl champ and LGBT ally Scott Fujita, who has been speaking out since 2009 for marriage equality formally retired from football yesterday, making the announcement with photos from Peru he posted to Twitter.

From ESPN:

Linebacker Scott Fujita signed a one-day contract with the New Orleans Saints on Monday and then announced his retirement after 11 seasons in the NFL. Fujita signed his contract in Machu Picchu, which is located in the Andes Mountains in Peru. He’s there with former Saints teammate Steve Gleason, who is battling Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

In a statement from the team, Fujita said he couldn’t think of a better place to be to announce his retirement.

“What better place to reach the end of the road than here at 10,000 feet above sea level, in the Peruvian Andes overlooking Machu Picchu with my dear friend Steve Gleason?”

Earlier this year, Fujita said in the New York Times:

I support marriage equality for so many reasons: my father’s experience in an internment camp and the racial intolerance his family experienced during and after the war, the gay friends I have who are really not all that different from me, and also because of a story I read a few years back about a woman who was denied the right to visit her partner of 15 years when she was stuck in a hospital bed…

…Believe it or not, conversations about issues like gay marriage take place in locker rooms every day. In many respects, the football locker room is a microcosm of society. While there is certainly an element of bravado in our sport, football players are not the meatheads many think we are. For some of my friends who raise personal objections to marriage equality, they still recognize the importance of being accepting. And many of them also recognize that regardless of what they choose to believe or practice at home or at their church, that doesn’t give them the right to discriminate.

(via Towleroad)