You Get What You Deserve

Complete and Utter Doucheweed of the Day goes to Oxford City’s Lee Steele for tweeting a homophobic comment about Wales rugby legend Gareth Thomas.

However, this story has a surprising ending considering some of the shit we’ve seen recently. The club stepped up and fired Steele’s ridiculous arse pronto.

Watishista kfunk22 gave me a heads up on this story and I’m grateful.  We’re big fans of Gareth Thomas here for his courage and also his support in the fight against homophobia. Read on for the details…

A Brave Man Takes A Stand

Rick Welts, President and CEO, of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns has made a choice to live his live openly. His story (and the heartbreaking effects his closeted life took on him) was chronicled in this Sunday’s New York Times. I thought it was appropriate  to share his journey on the International Day Against Homophobia. I hope that brave men like Rick Welts, Gareth Thomas, Michael Pinto dos Santos, Anton Hysen, John Amaechi, Steven Davies and Ian Roberts will inspire others to come out and pave the way towards a sports world where people can be free to be who they are.

International Day Against Homophobia

Today is the International Day Against Homophobia. Take a minute to check out activities and outreach or learn more about the efforts. Here are some sites that particularly deal with homophobia in soccer: Red Card Homophobia and The Justin Campaign (which as always are linked in our Sites We Love section). There are regular updates on both sites dealing with the fight against homophobia in our sport. If you are able, please consider making a donation today to the gay rights charity of your choice to help them continue their good work. Some suggestions:  International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and Human Rights Campaign. If you can’t make a donation, please take a moment to help spread awareness whether that be a tweet, Facebook status update or a blog post. Every bit of education and support helps. xoxo, Lozil

A Heartfelt Apology…

It was brought to my attention that yesterday’s Daily Drool Fabio Cannavaro is against same sex marriage and has made homophobic comments in the press. I had not heard about this before and did a bit of sleuthing and was horrified to discover that it was true. It was even brought to the attention of the European Parliament. Anyone who knows me personally will tell you that I am a staunch defender of marriage equality and gay rights, which makes this particularly painful for me.  And readers know that I have championed anti-homophobia campaigns on this blog regularly. If I had known this information beforehand, I would have never featured Cannavaro here and my heartfelt apologies to anyone that I offended by doing so.  I have made a donation to the Human Rights Campaign in light of this to help them with their work toward gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equal rights.  This complete and utter faux pas on my part comes just as noted douchebag Kobe Bryant made a homophobic slur to a ref  (which he has now apologized for – whatever, Kobe). This sort of thing has to stop. Thank you to notoriousjk for bringing this to my attention. I sincerely hope this never happens again, but god, if it does, please let me know ASAP. I take full responsibility for this and would like you to know that Maisougio had nothing to do with the choice of Cannavaro. I urge you to check out (under our Sites We Love section) both Red Card Homophobia and The Justin Campaign, which fight discrimination in association football. Again, my sincere apologies.  – Lozil

Mazel Tov II: Sheffield Eagles Debut Anti-Homophobia Jersey

While this is about rugby, it’s also about something that is very near and dear to our hearts, namely, the campaign against homophobia in sports. This past weekend, English rugby side Sheffield Eagles became the first UK sports team to wear a shirt with an anti-homophobia slogan. The shirt (and campaign) states “Homophobia: Tackle It!” and was jointly sponsored by LGBT History Month and Pride Sports with backing from the University & College Union (UCU) and the National Union of Teachers (NUT). On the eve of the kit’s debut, openly gay sports stars Ian Roberts and Gareth Thomas (rugby), John Amaechi (former NBA player) and Steven Davies (cricket) spoke out about their support for Sheffield’s campaign.  Sir Elton John also congratulated Sheffield on the initiative and sent the team a message of support.

Good on you, Sheffield Eagles! Real men support equality for all.

(As always, I urge you to visit Red Card Homophobia and The Justin Campaign to show your support. Homophobia has no place on the field, or off.)

Mazel Tov! Anton Hysén Comes Out of the Closet

20 year old Anton Hysén, a defender for the Swedish second division club Utsiktens BK has become that country’s first high profile openly gay footballer. Hysén is the son of Glenn Hysén who played as a defender for Liverpool F.C. from 1989-1992.  I think that Hysén speaks for many of us when he says “It’s totally sick when you think about it. … Where the hell is everyone else?”