The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, now known as GLADD, held their annual ?Spirit Day? celebration yesterday.? The Atlanta Braves, along with mostly all other Major League Baseball teams, participated through social media, calling on fans to wear purple and to put up a purple photo on their own social media profiles as a statement of support.
GLAAD was founded in 1985, and then?in 2010?joined with Brittany McMillian, a Canadian High School student, to celebrate Spirit Day, encouraging people to wear purple in honor of a young LGBT everywhere who have succumbed to bullying and depression, and taken their own lives.? The October Spirit Day is an outreach to communities everywhere for solidarity and tolerance.
But some Atlanta Braves fans reacted to the Facebook posting with vile and mean spirited comments showing how out of touch they are with mainstream America and the inevitability of equal treatment for all, both a basic human right as well as a right guaranteed under the US Constitution.
Some used their religious beliefs to justify their hatred towards the LGBT Community.? Some wrote hate the sin but love the sinner.? Some unfriended the Atlanta Braves and Major League Baseball claiming that they would no longer be fans.
This reaction was posted on Facebook by an anonymous fan:
“Reading this makes me so sad … it’s hard to read so much hatred toward people for who they are and, by extension, me for being me. It makes me question my faith in humanity … and whether I’d be better off leaving it all behind. So much hate. Why? What have I done to hurt anyone? (p.s. What is the “gay lifestyle?).”
These negative reactions were not limited to Brave fans.? From Oakland to New York, Kansas City to Philadelphia, and Boston, there were fans who reacted negatively to the inclusion of the link to the Spirit Day page.? Two MLB teams, the Cincinnati Reds and the Washington Nationals, did not include the link.? One, the Colorado Rockies, did not participate at all.
The Atlanta Braves had previously run into trouble back in 2011, when pitching coach Roger McDowell hurled anti-gay slurs and verbally threatened a family sitting in the stands during a late April game in San Francisco.? More than ten years ago, former Atlanta pitcher, John Rocker, became the poster boy for hate, by publicly spewing anti-gay, anti-Semitic, and anti, just about any other non white Christian group that one can think of, on and off the field.
Major league baseball has come a long way towards policing itself, and encouraging fans to join the movement towards tolerance and acceptance.? Back in 1988, umpire? Dave Pallone revealed that he was gay too, then MLB Commissioner, Bart Giamatti, leading to Pallone’s firing at the insistence of MLB owners.
While there has never been an openly gay major league baseball player, some? active players are publicly endorsing the idea of welcoming such a player into the clubhouse.? Detroit Tigers star pitcher, Justin Verlander did just that in an interview to CNN during spring training this past season.
Gay bashing is not limited to Major League Baseball.? That paragon of virtue, admitted adulterer, the NBA’s Kobe Bryant, made a homophobic slur towards a referee that earned him a $100,000 fine from the NBA.? But the NBA and all of major league sports have come a long way now that Jason Collins courageously publicly revealed his sexual orientation last April.? Still, it appears that his 12 year NBA career might just be over.
Despite the comments by San Francisco 49er, Chris Culliver, who publicly stated his views against any gays on his team just before last year’s NFL Superbowl, the NFL has begun to move forward. Last year in Maryland, Baltimore Ravens owner was urged by one Maryland lawmaker to restrain Ravens linebacker, Brendan Ayanbadejo, from expressing his support for the measure. The Ravens did not restrain Ayanbadejo and fans from all over supported his efforts.
But then there is the case of former Minnesota Vikings Punter Chris Kluwe, who openly supported the State of Minnesota’s same sex marriage legislation.? Kluwe was released by the Vikings after the 2012 season effectively ending his eight year career.? Minnesota Governor Mark Drayton believes that Kluwe’s stance on the same sex marriage legislation was the reason for his release by the Vikings.
It will be a great day in America when all of us are free to live our lives and to show public support for other people to be free to live their lives without public displays of retribution including retaliatory firings by employers.
Hate the sin but love the sinner?? How does that work? You proclaim that your religious beliefs are so superior that they justify public displays of cruelty and violence towards others based upon what they do in their own private lives.? This is practicing hatred toward people that you claim to love and it is hypocritical.
The same people who claim to love America and our Constitution are often the same people who say that their religious beliefs trump the Constitution when the two conflict.? When religious leaders substitute their religious beliefs for the duly constituted Civil Government ,this results in either anarchy or a Theocracy.
Like Afghanistan or Pakistan and the Taliban. These people are our own homegrown American Taliban.
Edited/Published: SB
