In the wake of his controversial comments on the subject of marriage equality made Wednesday, UFC lightweight contender Josh Thomson issued a press release Thursday clarifying his position.
Thomson posted a status message on his Facebook account questioning whether gay marriage would serve as a gateway to polygamy or adults marrying children.
As a follow-up in the resulting thread, Thomson took the line of questioning further.
“My next question is, should siblings be allowed to marry siblings?” Thomson asked. “My point is, where do you draw the line? I personally don’t care who you marry but I also am smart enough to know that it opens a gateway to men/women trying to marry young kids, siblings marrying each other and people having multiple husbands an wives. You have to think all of these things are okay otherwise your stopping them from being happy as well which is hypocrisy. Equality doesn’t stop with gay marriage, it just starts with it.”
After the online brushback Thomson received, he issued a press release on Thursday which stated his position. The San Jose, Calif.-based fighter, who neither used slurs in his initial comments, which got Nate Diaz suspended, nor made bullying comments directed at a specific individual, which got Matt Mitrione in trouble, said that he supports gay marriage and claimed his comments were taken out of context.
“I am not against gay rights or gay marriage in anyway,” stated Thomson. “My comments were completely taken out of context by some members of the media and I have since removed them out of respect for anyone who may have been offended. It was not my intention to offend or hurt anyone.”