The stories coming out of Yoel Romero’s destruction of Lyoto Machida should revolve around his ascendance to the top of the middleweight class. After a slow dance that took most of two rounds, Romero exploded early in the third to crush Machida’s future title aspirations with five perfectly placed elbows to the head. On a […]
The stories coming out of Yoel Romero’s destruction of Lyoto Machida should revolve around his ascendance to the top of the middleweight class. After a slow dance that took most of two rounds, Romero exploded early in the third to crush Machida’s future title aspirations with five perfectly placed elbows to the head. On a […]
The stories coming out of Yoel Romero’s destruction of Lyoto Machida should revolve around his ascendance to the top of the middleweight class. After a slow dance that took most of two rounds, Romero exploded early in the third round to crush Machida‘s future title aspirations with five perfectly placed elbows to the head. On […]
The stories coming out of Yoel Romero’s destruction of Lyoto Machida should revolve around his ascendance to the top of the middleweight class. After a slow dance that took most of two rounds, Romero exploded early in the third round to crush Machida‘s future title aspirations with five perfectly placed elbows to the head. On […]
It’s sometimes easy to forget that the cultures of our professional sports are not isolated from the rest of society, and that the two affect each other. This is easy to spot when looking at the issue of LGBT rights: the same way that professional athletes are still hesitant to accept a gay teammate, a person can still be fired for being gay in twenty-nine states. Progress is slowly being made on both fronts, as last week, NFL athletes Chris Kluwe and Brendon Ayanbadejo filed a Supreme Court brief arguing that not only is California’s Proposition 8 unconstitutional, but also that professional athletes have an important role in promoting tolerance in society.
The outspoken equal rights advocates [Author Note: By the way, if you haven’t read Kluwe’s rebuttal to Maryland state delegate Emmett C. Burns Jr., who tried to persuade the Baltimore Ravens to stop Ayanbadejo from voicing his stance on gay marriage, go read that now.] have recently caught the attention of one of our sport’s most popular fighters, Rashad Evans. Evans has not only signed their brief, but he also issued a strong statement in support of gay marriage. As he told Outsports:
“I’ve never been a homophobe, never understood what that is all about. I knew some people who were gay and never cared about their sexuality. But at the same time, I didn’t fully understand the issues around gay people until my friend BA started telling me about his full public support for gay marriage. We talked about the issue and I decided its not enough to not be against a minority, if you want things to go better for them you have to speak up with them.
It’s sometimes easy to forget that the cultures of our professional sports are not isolated from the rest of society, and that the two affect each other. This is easy to spot when looking at the issue of LGBT rights: the same way that professional athletes are still hesitant to accept a gay teammate, a person can still be fired for being gay in twenty-nine states. Progress is slowly being made on both fronts, as last week, NFL athletes Chris Kluwe and Brendon Ayanbadejo filed a Supreme Court brief arguing that not only is California’s Proposition 8 unconstitutional, but also that professional athletes have an important role in promoting tolerance in society.
The outspoken equal rights advocates [Author Note: By the way, if you haven’t read Kluwe’s rebuttal to Maryland state delegate Emmett C. Burns Jr., who tried to persuade the Baltimore Ravens to stop Ayanbadejo from voicing his stance on gay marriage, go read that now.] have recently caught the attention of one of our sport’s most popular fighters, Rashad Evans. Evans has not only signed their brief, but he also issued a strong statement in support of gay marriage. As he told Outsports:
“I’ve never been a homophobe, never understood what that is all about. I knew some people who were gay and never cared about their sexuality. But at the same time, I didn’t fully understand the issues around gay people until my friend BA started telling me about his full public support for gay marriage. We talked about the issue and I decided its not enough to not be against a minority, if you want things to go better for them you have to speak up with them.
“I’m a UFC fighter, a macho-type sport. I am a heterosexual guy in a tough macho sport, which is exactly the reason I feel a duty to say I support gay marriage and gay rights.
“I have nothing to gain personally from supporting this issue, and that’s the point. Society as a whole is better when there is equality, and I want to live in a country where everyone has the same rights because we all benefit from that.
“What people overlook is that is isn’t a sex issue, its a love issue. There’s no justifiable reason for trying to get in the way of two people who love each other.
“I have kids. I don’t want them growing up in a society where they, or their friends, could be second class citizens based on which person they fall in love with or who they want to be happy with.”
I’ll be honest: I tried not to cover this. I figured that this was something that would go away on its own, and it’s best not to draw attention to something that may hurt the sport. Plus, after reading reactions to “cunty-gate”, I realized that the majority of our readers simply do not care about issues like this. But after two straight days of Michael Bisping calling things “gay” on Twitter, I feel that the issue needs to be addressed before it gets blown out of proportion.
It started off as a response to a response to a tweet by Chael Sonnen, who himself is not a big fan of Michael Bisping. In a rare miss, Sonnen said that his fight with Brian Stann will be “Iron Man vs. Captain America”, and promised not to wear the suit if Stann didn’t bring the shield. Bisping seized the opportunity to mock Chael Sonnen with the following tweet:
Check after the jump for Michael Bisping’s tweets
Pay attention, now. This will come up again.
I’ll be honest: I tried not to cover this. I figured that this was something that would go away on its own, and it’s best not to draw attention to something that may hurt the sport. Plus, after reading reactions to “cunty-gate”, I realized that the majority of our readers simply do not care about issues like this. But after an entire day’s worth of Michael Bisping calling things “gay” on his Twitter account, I feel that the issue needs to be addressed before it gets blown out of proportion.
It started off as a response to a tweet by Chael Sonnen, who himself is not a big fan of Michael Bisping. In a rare miss, Sonnen said that his fight with Brian Stann will be “Iron Man vs. Captain America”, and promised not to wear the suit if Stann didn’t bring the shield. Bisping seized the opportunity to mock Chael Sonnen with the following tweet:
Okay, the guillotines line made me laugh. I’ll give him that before continuing.
I want to be as easy on Michael Bisping as possible, because in no way does he come off as a homophobe. In no way does it appear that he was trying to get under anyone’s skin except Chael Sonnen’s with his original remark. In fact, I’ll go as far as agree with him on the “bitches being offensive to women and dogs” joke: America as a whole is too sensitive with certain things. There’s just one problem: None of that is relevant.
Remember when Kobe Bryant used a homophobic remark towards an official earlier this year? The NBA immediately fined him and, in a joint effort with the GLSEN, sponsored a series of PSAs discouraging people from using the word “gay” as an insult. Even though the majority of basketball fans were either indifferent towards the situation or supportive of Kobe, David Stern recognized that the media, and more importantly, the NBA’s television partners and sponsors, would not tolerate such behavior. Whether Kobe is homophobic, whether most basketball websites would have bothered covering the offesnive comment if ESPN didn’t make a big deal about it or whether “gay” can still be used as a synonym for “happy” is irrelevant.
Now that the UFC has a deal with Fox, it’s safe to say that the sport is mainstream. While this is phenomenal for the growth of the sport, this also means that fighters are going to have to learn to play by the mainstream’s rules if they want to keep enjoying the mainstream’s attention. It doesn’t matter than most MMA sites aren’t covering this or stories like it. We now more than ever have to worry about the way that mainstream sports outlets such as ESPN portray our sport. Also, notice how the influence of Fox executives is already being felt? I’m willing to bet they wouldn’t be too happy to read Michael Bisping tweeting that things are “gay” any more than they would like to read Ryan Howard or Michael Vick tweeting that.
Again, I understand that Michael Bisping’s comments really aren’t that bad. In fact, I’d say that his comments are nowhere near as bad for our sport as, say, Mayhem Miller’s assault charges or Mike Whitehead’s sexual assault charges. But that’s not the point. The bottom line is that we are a mainstream sport now. It’s time we start acting like it.
