Tuve que poner esto como una página aparte porque si lo ponía como una entrada, iba a estar obsoleta bastante rápido. Esta es una sección que, seguramente, va a tener mucha actualización. Visiten de vez en cuando para ver las últimas noticias de estos temas.

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Dungy supports proposed gay-marriage ban in speech

Posted: Thursday March 22, 2007 6:46PM; Updated: Thursday March 22, 2007 6:56PM

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Tony Dungy is a deeply religious man who puts his faith first in his life, even above family and football. So his support of a proposed gay-marriage ban likely surprised few.

What was surprising is the Indianapolis Colts’ quiet coach shared his position publicly, sparking discussion about the impact of the Super Bowl winner’s comments.

Dungy caused a stir Tuesday when he accepted the “Friend of Family” award from the conservative Indiana Family Institute.

The coach told the audience he supported the group’s efforts to amend the Indiana constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

“I appreciate the stance they’re taking, and I embrace that stance,” Dungy told the crowd of about 700 people.

Dungy said his comments should not be considered gay bashing.

“We’re not trying to downgrade anyone else. But we’re trying to promote the family — family values the Lord’s way,” Dungy said.

Colts president Bill Polian was at NFL meetings in Phoenix on Thursday and was unavailable for comment.

“Coach Dungy’s feelings on the importance of marriage and family are well known to the overwhelming majority of American sports fans,” said Myra Borshoff Cook, a spokeswoman for Colts owner Jim Irsay. “He, of course, is free to speak to any group he wishes. The club does not take positions in political issues in which it is not directly involved.”

Supporters of the proposed ban hailed the endorsement.

“That was sort of a double for us,” said Curt Smith, president of the institute, which is associated with but independent of James Dobson’s “Focus on the Family” group.

Smith said he was unaware Dungy, who received the award because of his pro-family ethic, not for his views on public policy, would address the issue.

The resolution’s sponsor, Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Monticello, said Dungy’s endorsement made the proposal more credible.

“I certainly appreciate him being able to step forward and speak out strongly in his beliefs,” Hershman said. “I don’t think that anybody should criticize him for exercising his First Amendment right to speak as a private citizen in support of some deeply held beliefs.”

Some in the gay community disagreed.

Bil Browning, who runs bilerico.com, a blog that focuses on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues, wrote: “When the head coach publicly states that part of the Colts fan base should be second-class citizens, you can’t expect those same fans to support the team.”

Dan Funk, executive director of the Interfaith Coalition on Non-Discrimination, a network of 21 congregations, invited Dungy to meet with members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.

“All types of families from across Indiana are Colts fans,” he said. “We would like coach Dungy to meet with our families so he can better understand the negative impact (the resolution) will have on countless Hoosier families.”

Dungy is not the first public figure to draw fire for anti-gay comments.

Former NBA star Tim Hardaway apologized twice after responding to a question about his reaction to a gay teammate by saying “I hate gay people.” Actor Isaiah Washington, of the hit television show “Grey’s Anatomy,” sought counseling after using a gay slur when he referred to another cast member. Author-columnist Ann Coulter was chastised for repeating the slur when referring to Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards during a speech to a conservative group.

The NFL sought to distance itself from the matter.

“Coach Dungy is speaking for himself and expressing his views, which he is fully entitled to do,” league officials said in a statement. “No doubt there are people in our league that have a different view. We respect the right of employees to have and express their views and don’t regulate the political or religious views of team or league employees.”

David Morton, principal of the Indianapolis-based sports marketing group Sunrise Sports Group, doesn’t believe Dungy will suffer any lasting backlash from his comments.

“Tony’s position on this or any other political issue should be as one person’s opinion and one person’s opinion only,” Morton said. “It’s not as Tony Dungy, head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. It’s not the Indianapolis Colts, because I doubt if he asked Bill Polian or (Colts owner) Jim Irsay or anyone else what they thought.

“He’s never tried to take advantage of his position on the pulpit,” Morton said. “He spoke from the heart, and honestly, and I don’t think you can ask anyone to do anything else.”

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Blogosphere reacts to Brownback’s comments on Pace

Posted March 16, 2007, 10:58 a.m.

1 comment

Pace Comments Reaction

(AP) Brownback supports general over comments on homosexuals: The Kansas senator planned to send a letter on Thursday to President Bush supporting Marine Gen. Peter Pace, who earlier this week likened homosexuality to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gay personnel to serve openly. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs also said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune: “I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts. I do not believe the United States is well-served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way.” Lawmakers of both parties criticized the remarks, but Brownback’s letter called the criticism “both unfair and unfortunate.” “We should not expect someone as qualified, accomplished and articulate as General Pace to lack personal views on important moral issues,” Brownback said. “In fact, we should expect that anyone entrusted with such great responsibility will have strong moral views.”

(RedState) Blogger: Brownback’s on a roll: Sen. Sam Brownback (R.-Kan.) stood firmly behind Gen. Peter Pace today, circulating a letter among his Senate colleagues in support of the embattled chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It was a bold move by Brownback, but part of a shrewd strategy to differentiate himself from other candidates. Brownback began to separate from the pack of second-tier candidates at CPAC, where his volunteers stood toe-to-toe with legions of Romney supporters. In today’s Evans-Novak Political Report, David Freddoso noted the significance of Brownback’s third-place finish in the straw poll. Today, Brownback’s campaign circulated a memo making the case that he’s a viable candidate for president. It cites the glowing report Brownback received from the Club for Growth and includes this quote from Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform: “What Brownback has is complete credibility on the social conservative issues and complete credibility on the economic issues.” The memo also references a Rasmussen poll showing Brownback within striking distance of Hillary Clinton.
How far can Brownback go? He has a long road ahead, but he’s on a roll.

(Human Voices Blog) Blogger: Religious right is morally bankrupt: What kind of demented degenerate will take time off the job for which we pay him to go on rapturous, religious rants with no purpose other than to defame harmless people, including people who have volunteered to risk their lives in defense of our country? You’re looking at him.

(GOPNation Blog) Blogger: Brownback practicing free speech: This is likely no more than Brownback trying to sound relevant. And, the fact that CNN.com has it on its front page is their attempt to drag another Republican into the ‘Republicans are intolerant’ camp. I will say this though: it’s about time that a GOP politician comes out and defends the Joint Chiefs chief. Whether one agrees or disagrees with ones moral compass on this issue, they should be allowed to freely state that opinion without being dragged through the mud. Increasingly ‘free speech’ to the mainstreamers means only that liberals are allowed to state their beliefs but us conservatives are complete wackos and should be silenced.

(Creative Control, Bilal Dardai’s Journal) Blogger: ‘No surprise here’: Now, let’s be honest–Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) issuing a statement declaring homosexuality to be “immoral” is about as surprising a news item as Paris Hilton issuing a statement that she plans to go to a party and get wasted with her BFFs. The man’s whole career is based on his drive to be the most far-right conservative in the room on every issue imaginable, and he’s hoping to gain the 2008 GOP nomination on a platform of proto-fascist Christian soldiering.
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Protecting the covert with the overt: The real problem with Ann Coulter’s F-bomb

Brian Pierce

Posted: 3/15/07

By now it is old news that Ann Coulter recently called democratic presidential candidate John Edwards a “faggot” at the 34th annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference and that she was greeted with wild applause from many of those in attendance.

The response was rather predictable. The left, “saddened” and “disappointed” by this “lowering of the public discourse,” swiftly called for leading conservatives, especially Republican presidential candidates, to condemn Coulter. Said conservatives then expressed condemnation and declared that Coulter’s vitriol does not represent mainstream conservative thinking. A few of the newspapers that ran Coulter’s syndicated column dropped her from their pages. Though on the whole, she received little more than a series of wrist slaps, and it soon became clear that her career would keep on sailing largely as it had before. The media reported ad nauseam on the whole sordid mess, and then reported ad nauseam on why the media was reporting ad nauseam on the whole sordid mess.

All in all your typical news cycle.

But the problem with what Ann Coulter said in that crowded banquet hall isn’t what she said at all. It’s that what she said offers a quiet excusal for what so many others say, do and think on a daily basis. Ann Coulter becomes the standard against which we measure our own bigotry, and because her breed of bigotry is a rabid, seething and wild cur, the softer bigotry of most everybody else becomes seemingly harmless, unnoticed, and what’s worse, acceptable.

While John McCain responded to Coulter’s comments by calling them “wildly inappropriate,” he made no mention of the fact that in the 2006 election cycle he appeared in advertisements for an Arizona state constitutional amendment not only banning same-sex marriage but also denying any legal benefits to same-sex couples at all. And more insidiously, while John Edwards decried his victimization at Ann Coulter’s hands as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama leapt to his defense, not a single one of them believes the institution of marriage can withstand the inclusion of gay men and women.

But this is not just a political problem. While we may hope that Coulter’s hate speech would expose the ugly underbelly of discrimination in this country, the far more likely scenario is that it will only serve to distract us from real problems. When Coulter employs the word “faggot,” it makes the everyday usage of the phrase “that’s so gay” more protected by comparison. This is despite the fact that the latter is far more pervasive and as a direct result of its ubiquity, far more hurtful to real gay people trying to live their lives without feeling targeted.

This is a mentality that has plagued race relations in this country for decades. Because the overt racism that embraced segregation and made lynchings commonplace has been so successfully stigmatized, the hidden and institutionalized racism of today has become less assailable and more easily ignored, because hey, at least nobody’s getting lynched and the schools are legally integrated.

The reality isn’t that Coulter sits on the fringes of our society. It’s that everybody else has learned to successfully hide their prejudices in ways Coulter chooses not to. Politicians like Edwards or John Kerry before him have been feminized by the mainstream media (see Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough, Maureen Dowd, et al) for years. Just because the media chooses to make the word “faggot” implicit rather than explicit doesn’t make what they do any less harmful. Indeed, it makes it far more harmful.

Some have responded to the coverage of Coulter’s slur by saying we should pay no attention to her. That’s not quite right. We need to pay attention to what Coulter said, but only as a reminder to remain vigilant in our sensitivity to those manifestations of prejudice which might not otherwise catch our eye. Her behavior is not a sign that hatred still exists on the extremes; it is a sign that it still exists everywhere.

Tomado del Daily Illini.
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Retired NBA star Hardaway says he hates ‘gay people’

ESPN.com news services

Former Miami Heat guard Tim Hardaway said on a radio show Wednesday afternoon that he would not want a gay player on his team.

“You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known,” Hardaway said. “I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States.”

Hardaway was a guest of Miami Herald columnist Dan Le Batard on Miami sports radio station WAXY-AM and was asked how he would deal with a gay teammate. When asked if he would accept an active player’s coming out, such as that of retired NBA center John Amaechi, Hardaway replied: “First of all, I wouldn’t want him on my team. And second of all, if he was on my team, I would, you know, really distance myself from him because, uh, I don’t think that’s right. And you know I don’t think he should be in the locker room while we’re in the locker room. I wouldn’t even be a part of that,” he said.

NBA Commissioner David Stern, upon learning of the remarks Wednesday, removed Hardaway from subsequent league-related appearances. “It is inappropriate for him to be representing us given the disparity between his views and ours,” Stern said in a statement to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Hardaway has been taking part in NBA festivities ahead of Sunday’s All-Star Game in Las Vegas and attended an NBA Cares outreach event at a city YMCA with Knicks forward Jerome Williams on Tuesday.

Le Batard, who also writes for ESPN The Magazine, quoted Amaechi in a Miami Herald column saying the ex-NBA player was grateful for Hardaway’s words.

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

Thursday morning, on ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike in the Morning, Amaechi said although the reaction to his coming out has been “overwhelmingly positive,” Hardaway’s comments seemed to trigger similar statements from others.

“Every comment that [Hardaway] made is labeled with hate,” Amaechi said. “The percentage of e-mails I’ve received overnight that are going to have to go into a little box somewhere just in case I end up dead are unbelievable. He’s been a lightning rod for people to finally open the floodgates and decide that they can say some pretty awful stuff.”

“I will say this about the Tim Hardaway comments and the comments of people like him … these are the loud comments that pollute the air,” Amaechi said. “These are the comments that create the atmosphere that allow some of the tragic incidents of homophobia that we’ve seen. This is what makes the lives of gay and lesbian young people in schools miserable. It’s what stops gay and lesbian people in the workplace from coming out as well as the fact they can be fined in 33 states for being gay. These are part of the problem.”

Hardaway, later saying he regretted the remarks, apologized for the remarks during a telephone interview with Fox affiliate WSVN-TV in Miami.

“Yes, I regret it. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said I hate gay people or anything like that,” he said. “That was my mistake.”

Hardaway played for five NBA teams from 1990-2003 and was a five-time All-Star. He finished with averages of 17.7 points and 8.2 assists.

On Mike & Mike on Thursday morning, Amaechi also said he was heartened by the NBA’s response to Hardaway’s comments.

“I think Commissioner Stern is absolutely right. … I’ve been in contact with the NBA offices and it is not the views of the NBA as an organization,” he said. “I don’t think that people give NBA players enough credit … some of them definitely don’t agree with those views”

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

 

Tomado de: ESPN.com
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Ex-CIA contractor sentenced to prison

By ELIZABETH DUNBAR, Associated Press Writer

A former CIA contract employee was sentenced Tuesday to nearly 8 1/2 years in prison for beating an Afghan detainee who later died.

David Passaro, 40, was accused of hitting Abdul Wali with a flashlight and kicking him in the groin during a two-day interrogation at a remote military base in Afghanistan in July 2003. Wali died within 48 hours of the interrogation, after complaining of abdominal pain and an inability to urinate.

Passaro was the first American civilian charged with mistreating a detainee during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was found guilty last year of assault and could have gotten 11 1/2 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle sentenced Passoro to eight years and four months, and has said that a lack of an autopsy probably kept Passaro from being charged with murder.

Defense attorney Joe Gilbert argued his client should be given a lighter sentence because of his military service and because the death happened in a hostile nation during war time.

Prosecutors said Wali, an Afghan farmer, came forward after learning he had been implicated in rocket attacks on a military base in Afghanistan.

The local governor, Said Akbar, wrote to the judge last week, saying Wali’s death had become a tool for terrorist recruiting and was “a huge setback for Afghanistan’s national reconciliation efforts.”

Passaro told the judge he was only trying to do his job well, but regretted how he treated Wali.

“He is a human being,” Passaro said. “I failed him. If I could go back and change things, it would have never happened. I wish I had never gone in to talk to him.”

At the trial, prosecutors argued Passaro used several harsh techniques to pressure Wali about the rocket attacks during questioning in a dark and hot mud-walled cell. Wali repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Passaro put Wali in a series of “stress positions,” according to prosecutors.

Several witnesses testified they saw Passaro beat Wali with a metal flashlight and his fists. Two interrogation sessions ended with Passaro kicking Wali in the groin, once with enough force to lift the prisoner off the ground.

Tomado de: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070213/ap_on_re_us/prisoner_abuse_cia

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Hnida finds peace in telling her story

By Jemele Hill

Page 2

Katie Hnida, the first woman to score in a Division I-A college football game, is doing just fine. I, on the other hand, am not.

I am amazed at her confidence, stunned at how peaceful she seems. This, I have read, all comes after a torturous journey. She was harassed, raped and doubted. She was marginalized and discounted. Resurrection wasn’t easy, either.

Hnida had a better experience when she transferred from Colorado to New Mexico.

I am wrestling with the enormity of her story. She has done this before. I have not. Hnida, a former walk-on kicker at Colorado and New Mexico, has shared her saga with thousands, most notably in the recent release of her autobiography, “Still Kicking: My Journey as the First Woman to Play Division One College Football.”

As I interview her, I am feeling things I don’t want to feel. I am remembering an incident from my own past that I don’t want to remember. When Hnida sat down in December 2005 to begin writing the 277-page book — which details the horrific harassment she experienced during her two years at Colorado — she had nightmares as she summoned the pain she systematically had buried. I am fearful about what I will dream about when our interview is over.

I will not put our experiences on the same level, though. My trauma lasted a few minutes. Hers, two years. She says she was raped by a teammate and trusted friend at Colorado in 2000. She also withstood being terrorized by a stalker (not a teammate). Players exposed their genitals to her as a sick joke. She was groped in team huddles after practices. And among other childish pranks, footballs were thrown at her head. Not typical college memories, for sure.

I could turn to my mother, a strong woman who also was sexually abused. Hnida couldn’t turn to anyone, especially her coach, Gary Barnett, who to this day claims ignorance of her harassment — ignorance Hnida contradicts in her book. She never told Barnett about the rape, but her father spoke with Barnett about the harassment after Hnida decided to leave Colorado. When Dave Hnida told Barnett about backup quarterback Zac Colvin calling his daughter a particularly nasty name, Katie says Barnett’s response was: “He’s from Texas. You’ve got to expect that.”

“We felt like we did everything for Katie Hnida,” Barnett told me on the phone this week. He said he hasn’t read Hnida’s book and hasn’t spoken to her in six years. “We tried to be as accepting as we could. Nothing was ever said to me regarding these feelings she had. When I read about it [in the newspaper], that was the first time I heard about it.”

Barnett survived not only Hnida’s allegations but those of other women who alleged similar abuse, and a recruiting scandal laced with sex, at Colorado before he was fired last year. He left with $3 million and little credibility. The lasting memory of Barnett will be what he told reporters in February 2004 when asked whether his players respected Hnida.

“It’s obvious Katie was not very good,” he said in that infamous sound bite. “She was awful. Katie was not only a girl, she was terrible, OK? There’s no other way to say it.”

Hnida never pressed charges against her attacker because, like the rest of us, she saw the Kobe Bryant rape case. I know that helpless feeling all too well. I told police in 1988 that I had scratched my attacker, so there was some evidence, but they were uninterested in pursuing an attempted rape charge against a man with a lengthy drug history.

Although Hnida came forward before Bryant was accused, she was still mulling legal action during Bryant’s pretrial hearing. The dismissal of Bryant’s case and the subsequent character attacks on his accuser convinced Hnida not to pursue anything. To this day, she has never named her attacker. Mine is dead.

“I was aware they had tried stuff with the other women who had come forward. But I was thinking, OK, there is no alcohol involved in mine. I was a virgin when I was raped. I don’t have much of a past that they can dredge up. But stuff was made up, and that hurt more than anything. It just seems so inhumane to me. I can’t believe somebody would do that to cover their own rear end, I guess.”

Hnida did get a brief taste of what Bryant’s accuser experienced. Immediately after Hnida went public, we heard the same things we always hear in these situations: unsubstantiated, salacious stories about the accuser. There were rumors Hnida removed her top at the team hotel during a bowl trip and gave her teammates lap dances. She denies it. None of it was ever proved, but that wasn’t the point.

“I could handle the infamous quote of ‘not only is she a girl but a terrible kicker,’” Hnida said. “That actually did not bother me that much. I thought it was kind of a classless thing to say. That was the guy I knew. But when it came down to them really actually going after my character trying to smear that, I was really naive about that, too. I was aware they had tried stuff with the other women who had come forward. But I was thinking, OK, there is no alcohol involved in mine. I was a virgin when I was raped. I don’t have much of a past that they can dredge up. But stuff was made up, and that hurt more than anything. It just seems so inhumane to me. I can’t believe somebody would do that to cover their own rear end, I guess.”

Other women came forward with stories of abuse by Colorado players, and ultimately it led to more news coverage, firings and bad publicity. For a moment, it forced college football to confront a misogynistic culture that often is celebrated.

“I realized writing the book was like surgery,” Hnida said. “It was really painful recovering from it, but I knew I was going to be healthy in the long run.”

Is that how this works? Throughout our conversation, the details of my own attack surged back into my mind. Me kicking, clawing and pleading. Him laughing.

“What I’m still working through is this guy is a friend,” Hnida said. “It was someone I trusted. That has been the hardest thing for me. It wasn’t just some random guy coming off the street, middle of the night with a knife. It was someone I was going over to hang out with and watch a basketball game. I never dreamed in a million years that he would even try to kiss me, let alone do what he did. That’s something I still struggle with because I trusted him immensely. I respected him, too.”

I had spent the night at a friend’s house. While everyone was asleep, my friend’s uncle snuck into the room where I was sleeping. I awoke to find him staring at me. I tried to leave, but he threw me on the bed. He outweighed me by so much. I was 13.

Even now, I can’t remember exactly how I got away. The grace of God is my best answer. I just remember running down the stairs, waking up everyone in the house and telling them I was almost raped. I called my mother immediately. My friend’s mother never believed me.

My mother did. We never spoke to that family again.

Gary Barnett received plenty of criticism for his handling of the Colorado program. “I haven’t actually crossed paths with any of the ones who gave me a really hard time,” Hnida said. “There is definitely a lot of them who don’t like the fact that I came forward or don’t believe me. It was just a part of my life that was so terrible that anything that brings up memories from it, hurts.”

Miraculously, despite all she endured, Hnida’s dream of playing college football survived. She found acceptance at New Mexico. She learned to trust again. And on Aug. 30, 2003, she made history when she converted two PATs for the Lobos in a victory over Texas State.

But playing college football was never quite the same. Hnida was never the kicker she was at Chatfield High in Littleton, Colo., where she was named one of the 20 Most Influential Teens in America by Teen People. It is hard trying to be the best when every day feels like the worst.

“When I got in and kicked the history-making extra point … I can’t watch those [highlights],” Hnida said. “My kicks are not what I consider to be good kicks for me. Yeah, they went through the uprights and that’s what’s important. But, you know, I wanted to be kicking as well as I could be. I wanted to have those suckers as high as they were supposed to be and grooving the ball. For me, kicking is as natural as breathing. When I got out on that football field, it was like, ‘Wow, this is just what I’m meant to do.’ Having that kind of taken away and having my kicking style get all screwed up, that was a really, really difficult thing for me. One of the hardest things is being robbed of something that was internally mine. It seemed like it was untouchable, but it got affected.”

Untouchable, but affected — that’s a good way to put it.

“Obviously, rape is the most underreported violent crime in America,” Hnida said. “But the number of women who don’t tell anyone about it — and I know because I was one of those women for a little while — I know why you don’t tell people. There is a huge stigma attached to being a rape victim. Don’t hold this in yourself. There are people and resources. I hate to see the pain and the suffering in some of these women’s eyes. At the same time, that’s what’s been great about being able to tell my story. You don’t have to let a rape define you. It sometimes can feel as if it’s going to control your life, but it is entirely possible to have a healthy, full life after something that horrific happens.”

Hnida, now 25, lives in New York City because it is easier for her to manage her speaking engagements and book tour from there. She still loves sports just as much as she ever did. It is difficult for her to watch Colorado games, but she remains devoted to her Denver Broncos, even though she has taken ownership of the New York Giants. She wants to be a sportscaster someday.

Big-city living suits her. But she has one major issue with the Big Apple. “Man, is it hard to find goal posts in Manhattan,” Hnida said.

Tomado de: www.espn.com

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Ignorant jocks need to stop the foolishness

By Jeff Pearlman

Special to Page 2

In response to the shocking, troubling, earth-rattling news that the National Basketball Association – our National Basketball Association – once housed one of those (lock the barn!) gay folk, commissioner David Stern said it best. “We have a very diverse league. The question at the NBA is always ‘Have you got game?’ That’s it, end of inquiry.”

Stern’s comments were expressed in proper sentences.

Stern’s comments were phrased somewhat eloquently.

Stern’s comments were encapsulated in fewer than 25 words.

Stern’s comments were, well, inane.

I have been a sportswriter for nearly 13 years. I have been in clubhouses and training rooms, baseball stadiums and horse barns. I’ve watched Barry Zito surf, Cord McCoy lasso a cow, Troy Aikman spit into a cup, J.D. Drew praise Jesus and Gary Sheffield praise money. I’ve chronicled what it’s like to win, what it’s like to lose, what it’s like to love a teammate and what it’s like to hate one. I’ve seen envy and elation, hunger and disinterest, excruciating pain and unrivaled pride.

Here is what I can say, with 100 percent certainty: Most jocks don’t like, to use the popular word of choice from the locker rooms, the “fa—-s.”

I know … I know. Watch my language. But let’s be honest. That’s what they are to the majority of professional athletes: Not gays. Not homosexuals.

F—— fa—-s, often.

I have witnessed the scene time and time again. Basketball player wears a yellow jacket with matching shoes – he’s a “fa—-.” Baseball player jogs into the dugout and trips over a bat — “fa—-.” Wide receiver avoids crossing the middle of the field – “What the hell are you, a f—— fa—-?” Why, just a few months back Steelers linebacker Joey Porter dipped into his linguistic catalogue and pulled out “Oreo fa—-” to describe Kellen Winslow of the Browns.

I’m not 100 percent sure what that means, but it doesn’t sound like an invitation to tea. (To his credit, Porter apologized. To his discredit, his apology was, “I didn’t mean to offend anybody but Kellen Winslow.”) In many ways, it’d be overly simplistic to merely blame the athletes without searching a bit deeper. For many African-Americans, a disapproval of homosexuality comes with the racial territory. Being gay is looked upon as something … weird. Something … just not right. It stems from grandpa. And grandpa’s grandpa. As rapper Kanye West noted last year, it’s hypocritical for African-Americans to complain about bigotry when they apply their own form to others. From a young age, West noted, you’re taught that gays aren’t normal. Aren’t righteous. It’s not an easy cycle to snap.

Personally, I have a much harder time grasping the locker-room Bible thumpers; those myriad competitors who attend daily chapel, speak of love and outreach and togetherness – then damn gays to an eternity of hell. I’ve rarely heard a born-again Christian athlete openly complain about a teammate’s vulgar language, or a teammate’s blowing off autograph seekers, or a teammate’s cheating by taking steroids. Factually, never has a born-again ballplayer refused to play with someone because he committed infidelity. But I promise you – in the spirit of Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese – that when the first active athlete does come out, there will be trade demands from devout Christians.

Myriad trade demands.

What Stern misses in his naive assessment of the league is that homosexuality = confusion, and confusion = discomfort. Last year, while working on a Newsday profile of Cincinnati Reds pitcher Joe Valentine and his lesbian parents, I stumbled upon T.J. Tucker, a Washington Nationals pitcher. When I asked T.J. whether he’d be comfortable with a gay teammate, he shrugged awkwardly. “I’ve got nothing against those people,” he said.

“But I don’t get why anyone would want to be like that.”

Fast forward to yesterday, when Philadelphia 76ers forward Shavlik Randolph responded to the new revelation by saying, “As long as you don’t bring your gayness on me, I’m fine.”

Your gayness?

“Many athletes just don’t know,” says Brian Johnson, a former major league catcher. “They think being gay is this horrible thing that needs to be feared. It’s pathetic.” While coming up through the minor leagues, one of Johnson’s roommates was Billy Bean, the outfielder who later came out of the closet. Johnson saw Bean’s torment; saw the struggles he endured in the areas of sexuality. “We just all need to grow up and accept people for who they are. A gay athlete isn’t plotting to jump you in the shower. He’s just another athlete.”

Call me a New York liberal, call me a gay-loving freak, call me Wayne Krenchicki – here’s an idea: Let’s stop with the foolishness and the fear mongering and the obscure biblical references, and let’s start using our brains. Gays are not going to dig through your locker or tell The Advocate about how big you are. They are not deviant, sinful, evil or, for that matter, wrong. They are human beings who – oftentimes – play sports with remarkable skill.

They are professional athletes.

Tomado de: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=pearlman/070209&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos2

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Ku Klux Klan reportedly on the rise

By Matthew BiggThu Feb 8, 4:43 PM ET

The white supremacist Ku Klux Klan is on the rise in the United States and is exploiting the issue of illegal immigration to attract new members, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League.

The Klan has declined dramatically since the 1960s when its members dressed in white robes, burned crosses and spread terror through lynchings but immigration is helping to revive its fortunes, said the league which monitors hate groups.

“The (Klan’s) thinking is that if the average Joe is against immigration then we are against it too. They are trying to gain a foothold in the mainstream community,” said Allen Kohlhepp of the league’s southeast region on Thursday.

“Ninety percent (of Klan members) will never commit a crime but their rhetoric will influence the one in the group who may go off and do something,” Kohlhepp said in an interview.

The secretive Klan probably has several thousand members nationwide and has gained hundreds of new members over the immigration issue and its exploitation of opposition to gay marriage and fear of crime, Kohlhepp said.

It has expanded in parts of the country including the Great Plains and the West Coast where it used to be inactive.

In one example, the Brotherhood of Klans attempted to recruit members in Iowa towns such as Denison and Storm Lake where immigrants from Mexico and Laos have settled recently, the report said.

The Klan fits into the broader picture of right wing militant and neo-Nazi groups that sprang to prominence with the Oklahoma bombing in 1995 but they have been marginalized and weakened by in-fighting, the report said.

They also no longer have close relationships with law enforcement officials and local government that enabled them to spread terror in the Deep South in the decades before the 1960s, said the league’s report.

Most Klan members no longer wear white and instead frequently dress like racist skinheads and Neo-Nazis at meetings with whom they cooperate, Kohlhepp said.

About 80 members of the National Socialist Movement and Klan groups met in Laurens, South Carolina, to discuss ways to increase cooperation, the report said.

Klan members remain identifiable at meetings with other groups by the Klan symbol they wear of a red drop of blood in the center of a white cross on a blood red background, said Kohlhepp.

Tomado de: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070208/us_nm/usa_kkk_dc&printer=1

 

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Ousted Pastor ‘Completely Heterosexual’

By NEELA BANERJEE

Forced by a gay sex scandal to resign as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Rev. Ted Haggard now feels that after three weeks of intensive counseling, he is “completely heterosexual,” says an overseer of the megachurch Mr. Haggard once led.

The church official, the Rev. Tim Ralph, said in an interview published yesterday by The Denver Post that Mr. Haggard had also told the board of overseers that his only sexual relationship involving another man had been with Michael Jones, the onetime Denver prostitute who exposed that three-year affair last fall. Mr. Jones said then that he was making it public because Mr. Haggard had acted hypocritically in promoting a constitutional amendment to bar same-sex marriage.

Mr. Haggard, who as a result of the scandal was ousted by the overseers in November as senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, broke a three-month silence over the weekend when he contacted members of the church by e-mail to tell them that he was healing.

His three weeks of counseling, in Phoenix, felt like “three years’ worth of analysis and treatment,” but now “Jesus is starting to put me back together,” Mr. Haggard wrote in the e-mail message, which was published in The Colorado Springs Gazette on Monday.

“I have spent so much time in repentance, brokenness, hurt and sorrow for the things I’ve done and the negative impact my actions have had on others,” he said.

Mr. Haggard could not be reached for comment yesterday. Mr. Ralph declined through a spokeswoman to comment, and there was no response to telephone calls and e-mail to another overseer or to a New Life spokesman. But Mr. Ralph told The Denver Post that Mr. Haggard had come out of the counseling convinced of his heterosexuality.

“He is completely heterosexual,” Mr. Ralph told The Post, adding that Mr. Haggard’s homosexual activity had not been “a constant thing.”

Dr. Jack Drescher, a New York psychiatrist who is an expert on issues of gender and sexuality, said that while it was people’s prerogative to identify their sexual orientation as they wanted, the notion of being able to change that orientation was “not consistent with clinical presentations, but totally consistent with theological belief.”

“Some people in the community that Mr. Haggard comes from believe homosexuality is a form of behavior, a sinful form of behavior based on certain things in the Bible, and they don’t believe you can create a healthy identity based on sinful behavior,” Dr. Drescher said. “So they define it as a behavior that can be changed, and there is this thinking that if you control those behaviors enough, heterosexual attractions will follow.”

Mr. Haggard said in his message to New Life members that he and his wife were taking online courses to get master’s degrees in psychology, and Mr. Ralph told The Post that the oversight board had recommended to Mr. Haggard that he take up secular work.

Gracias a Wilfredo por conseguirla. Tomado de: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/us/07haggard.html?ex=157680000&en=78ba75cc1f38c537&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
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Who’s articulate now?

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

SEN. JOE BIDEN STUMBLED from the presidential race starting gate last week with all the finesse of an obtuse Bubba. The senator from Delaware called Sen. Barack Obama, an opponent in the Democratic presidential sweepstakes, “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and is a nice-looking guy.”

While there were the usual apologies and other thumb-sucking excuses for the Democrat — Oh, that’s just garrulous Joe! He’s OK! — he shouldn’t get off so easily.

Calling the first-term senator “clean” was bad enough. Are most mainstream black politicians dirty in Biden’s mind?

“Articulate” is just as problematic, perhaps more insidious. It seems that whenever a black leader can string together a sentence without slipping into ghettospeak or Eubonics, whites tend to condescendingly tag him or her as “articulate.” It’s hard to imagine Biden referring to former Sen. John Edwards, another Democrat running for president, as “articulate and bright.” It’s as if some whites don’t expect blacks to speak the Queen’s English.

Biden’s gaffe is instructive in that it reminds us that racial bias reveals itself in the words we use in describing one another.

There are a lot of racist rednecks and clueless Bubbas who don’t speak the Queen’s English. Yet we aren’t calling their well-spoken leaders “articulate” or “clean.”

Tomado de: http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1170860046243650.xml&coll=9

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Lawmaker says blacks should ‘get over’ slavery

BY KIMBALL PAYNE

January 17 2007

RICHMOND — The day after lawmakers honored the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr., a member of the House of Delegates stirred furious and tearful debate in Richmond with inflammatory comments about African-Americans and Jews. Del. Frank Hargrove, R-Hanover, triggered controversy while talking about an impending House resolution that would formally apologize for the state’s role in the slave trade. He said African-Americans should “get over it” because no one alive today was involved in slavery.

“Are we going to force Jews to apologize for killing Christ?” Hargrove asked.

His comments appeared in the Charlottesville Daily Progress on Tuesday, and lawmakers reacted quickly when the House opened session that day. Hargrove, 79, responded by denouncing slavery but was met with groans and awkward silence when he suggested that a Jewish delegate, whose grandparents escaped Nazi-occupied Poland, was being hypersensitive about the comments.

“I think your skin was a little too thin,” Hargrove said.

It marks the third time in the last five months that a Virginia Republican has stepped into racial controversy. And it comes as the state is poised to welcome the world to Jamestown for the 2007 celebration, where it will mark the contributions of American Indians, Africans and English settlers and the beginning of the state’s complex racial history.

Last year, incumbent U.S. Sen. George Allen lost his seat after using an obscure racial epithet to describe a worker for a rival campaign. Allen’s campaign never recovered after he twice called a videographer for his opponent “macaca” – a genus of monkey and a racial slur in some French-speaking African countries.

Last month, Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Rocky Mount, touched off outrage when he criticized a Muslim Congressman for using a Quran at his swearing-in ceremony several weeks ago. Goode has not backed down, instead warning that not speaking out could lead to the election of more Muslims.

On Tuesday, three delegates stood on the House floor to condemn Hargrove’s words.

Virginia Black Caucus Chairman Dwight C. Jones, D-Richmond, said Hargrove’s statements were narrow-minded and exclusionary. Then Jones recalled the horrors of the slave trade and the struggles for civil rights.

“When somebody tells me I should just get over slavery, I can only express my emotion by projecting that I am appalled, absolutely appalled,” Jones said.

Jones said Hargrove desecrated King’s memory. Del. Donald McEachin, D-Richmond, talked about the stories of his family’s bondage that have been passed down from his grandmother who will soon turn 103 years old.

“Quite frankly … it’s hard to get over it,” said McEachin. “When there is a wrong committed, there needs to be an apology.”

Del. David Englin, D-Alexandria, explained his family’s exodus to the United States to escape fervent anti-Semitism in Poland prior to World Ward II.

“There are members of this body whose families came here in chains,” said Englin, who sits next to Hargrove on the House floor. “My family came here in hope. … I know the gentleman meant no harm to my family. I hope we can all use this as a learning opportunity.”

When Englin finished, Hargrove rose to respond. He condemned slavery and said he didn’t mean to offend anyone. But after describing the plight of American Indians, Hargrove continued to explain why he was against a formal state apology for slavery.

“I didn’t have anything to do with mistreating Indians,” Hargrove said.

Hargrove then addressed Englin specifically.

“I didn’t know you were Jewish. I don’t care what your religion is,” Hargrove said. “I think your skin was a little too thin.”

Afterward, delegates from Hampton Roads had a variety of reactions.

Del. Mamye BaCote, D-Newport News, read Hargrove’s words early Tuesday morning and said she was not surprised.

“Even though it’s 2007, there are still people who believe that an apology isn’t necessary,” BaCote said. “Some things haven’t changed.”

Del. Jeion Ward, D-Hampton, was taken off guard.

“It was shocking to see,” said Ward. “It was really saddening.”

Del. Lionell Spruill Sr., D-Chesapeake, said there was no excuse for what Hargrove said.

“What he said, you can’t dress it up,” said Spruill. “The man said thin-skinned? Come on, now. This kind of stuff has got to stop. He’s been around a long time. He knew there was a problem a long time ago. How can we get over it by these kinds of remarks? It won’t go away.”

Asked how outsiders would view Virginia in light of this latest racial controversy, Spruill said: “They will say, well, Virginia’s still in the South.”

Some black delegates were more forgiving.

“He’s been one of those delegates who has always reached out to me,” said Del. Onzlee Ware, D-Roanoke. “He’s given me good sound advice. We’ve had plenty of conversations. I’ve never felt any racial tension between us.”

Ware said Tuesday’s debate could have been handled differently by those who responded to Hargrove.

“Although we disagree with Del. Hargrove’s statement, this is America. It’s OK for him to feel that way,” he said. “But my job is to enlighten him, not to try and further incite the debate. That’s the only place where I think we missed the opportunity.”

The slavery apology resolution is to be brought for a vote within the next few weeks.

Tomado de: http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-30976sy0jan17,0,5611805,print.story

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‘Grey’s Anatomy’ star should keep his job

Kenyon Farrow

Posted: 1/30/07

“Grey’s Anatomy” star Isaiah Washington may lose his job for using an anti-gay slur against a co-star. But Washington has done enough apologizing and should be allowed to keep his job.

Washington was foolish for using (or possibly repeating) the slur at a recent Golden Globe press conference, especially after trying to deny that he used the term in the first place. Afterward, he publicly apologized to his castmates, the show’s fans and the lesbian and gay community “for using a word that is unacceptable in any context or circumstance.”

Washington is now reportedly seeking counseling after the controversy, and he recently met with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

T his scandal is proof that there is still a double standard when it comes to blacks who break certain social mores.

Janet Jackson’s latest album suffered poor sales presumably because of the wardrobe malfunction three years ago, while her blouse-ripping cohort Justin Timberlake was given a clean slate and has enjoyed strong sales.

A few years ago, white rapper Eminem was called into question for his homophobic lyrics, but all he had to do was appear on stage with Elton John at the Grammy’s and he was given a free pass.

Isaiah Washington is not perfect, but he can be forgiven. In 1996, he played a gay character dealing with homophobia from other black men in Spike Lee’s film “Get On the Bus.” When promoting that film, Washington spoke frankly about the need for the black community to embrace its gay brothers and sisters.

I was in my early 20s then, and this was an important statement for me. As a black gay man, I felt I was being affirmed publicly by another black man.

This must not have been an easy thing for Washington to do 11 years ago, and things are not any better now. In an industry with so few roles for black actors, black A-listers have passed up scripts featuring black gay characters because many of them consider taking the roles to be career suicide.

Now, more than a decade later, the gay community is calling for Washington’s head. There are several petitions floating across the Internet asking for his ouster.

Is it better to make the actor accountable for his actions and assist him in helping end his homophobia, or do we get him fired – and, at this point, possibly blacklisted? This could leave him even more isolated and marginalized for something he has already admitted was an error in judgment, and that would be no victory for anyone.

Kenyon Farrow is co-editor of “Letters From Young Activists” and wrote the above column for Progressive Media Project. It was made avaliable through MCT Campus.

© Copyright 2007 Daily Kent Stater

Tomado de: http://www.stateronline.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=373d1089-937d-47a0-a322-df69dc7726dd

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Michael Richard’s racist tirade:

Este tiene un lenguaje bien crudo.