New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees appeared blindsided last week by a wave of negative press about his nearly decade-long affiliation with the antigay hate group Focus on the Family.
After the beloved NFL player starred in a new “Bring Your Bible to School” video for the extremist group, it was revealed that he also had a profile on its official website published in 2015 and was once a guest on its hate-filled radio program. The 2010 broadcast is still up for sale on Amazon for $1.99.
Focus on the Family opposes same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples. It also supports gay conversion therapy and religious freedom laws, believes trans people are deranged, says anti-bullying groups promote homosexuality, and has lobbied for legislation allowing antigay workplace discrimination
Related: Drew Brees to people criticizing his work with antigay hate group: “Shame on you!”
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When confronted by reporters on Thursday about all this, Brees denied having any knowledge of Focus on the Family’s homophobic stances and then blamed the media for writing negative headlines about him.
“Why would you post a headline like that? Why?” Brees said. “What’s a shame is that people will make headlines just to get hits, just to get views.”
“Shame on them.”
Enter Ellen Degeneres.
Over the years, Brees has appeared on The Ellen Show half a dozen times or so and has partnered with her on several different occasions.
In 2010, he filmed an anti-bullying PSA for her telling everyone that “bullying needs to stop” and that “making fun of someone for being different” is “ignorant.”
And just last month, he tweeted that he had helped raise over $40,000 for her wildlife center in Rwanda.
We were able to raise $41,507 for the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund!! Thank you to all who participated in the raffle and especially @solesbysir Marcus Rivero who painted these beautiful… https://t.co/9qjDipr0jT
— Drew Brees (@drewbrees) August 28, 2019
Ellen calls Brees her “favorite quarterback” and even keeps one of his jerseys on display in her studio.
So surely, she must have a few thoughts about his involvement with one of the leading antigay hate groups in the country?
Evidently not.
So far, Degeneres has been radio silent over the whole thing, instead tweeting out birthday messages to folks like Idris Elba and Pink and posting clips from old episodes of her talk show in the lead up to its Season 17 premiere.
And people are noticing.
I know @TheEllenShow is a big fan of @drewbrees. What does she have to say about this? https://t.co/k5UMGtLzOI
— ???? ????? (@miketheidealist) September 6, 2019
Hey @TheEllenShow Could you talk to your good friend @drewbrees about making a video for Focus on the Family? I'm sure you know that's an awful group that promotes Anti-LGBTQ views. I'm all for practicing your faith, except when it promotes hate of other humans.
— Christi Longlois (@Nolalongwa) September 4, 2019
I wonder if @TheEllenShow has seen this?! Given he has his own seat and his jersey displayed in the studio…. https://t.co/LSLC0Df2GZ
— chadwick breedlove (@chadwick003) September 4, 2019
@TheEllenShow Need to hear from you regarding Drew Brees joining hate group!
— Shari Godfrey (@ShariGodfrey) September 5, 2019
It could very likely be that Ellen is still working out a strategy for how to handle the situation. We wouldn’t be surprised if she has Brees on her show in the near future to talk it out. (Let’s just hope she handles it better than she did the Kevin Hart fiasco.)
…Or maybe she’s just been too busy preparing for the new season, which premieres today, to notice?
…Or maybe, though we doubt this is the case, she’s waiting for the whole thing to blow over? Perhaps the $40,000 Brees helped raise for her Rwandan elephants last month was enough to buy her silence.
Whatever the reason, all eyes are on the beloved talk show host and LGBTQ role model. Here’s hoping she says or does something and soon because her silence on this matter is turning deafening.
We have reached out to Degeneres for comment and will update this article if we hear back.
Related: Twitter users aren’t forgiving Ellen DeGeneres for forgiving Kevin Hart
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jjose712
Ellen couldn’t care less about gays and gay rights and she showed that with Kevin Hart.
If the homophobe is a celebrity, she won’t condem him (unless it’s trendy and make her look cool)
James
ELLEN DEGENERES IS A PHONY.
JonathanMartin1285
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Ryan99
Sorry, but lacking anything more, I believe drew when he says he didn’t know they held these views and he doesn’t share them.
James
HA HA HA HA HA. THAT’S A LAUGH. AND THE LOG CABIN REPUBLICANS DON’T THINK TRUMP IS HOMOPHOBIC. HA HA HA HA.
KZNBama
Probably because Ellen knows better than to fight hate with hate. Attacking Brees for any of his affiliations, past or present, with shame and hate would only empower and energize anti-gay groups like Focus on the Family. It’s discouraging that so many in the LQBTQ community fail to see this. It’s only by taking the high road and setting a strong moral example that we will ever defeat Focus on the Family and other monstrosities like it. If we sink to their level and employ the same hate-filled rhetoric and tactics they use against us, we do nothing but shoot our own feet.
James
GROW A SPINE AND STOP ACTING LIKE THESE HATE GROUPS ARE OUR POTENTIAL FRIENDS. COWARD.
UlfRaynor
I’m guessing you momentarily forgot the lesson Ronald Reagan and the GOP taught us during the eighties:
Silence Equals Death
I choose standing up to bullies and fighting for my civil rights, you go ahead and hide in your closet and remain silent.
karl schroeder
The problem here is that he says he was not aware of the homophobic stance of that organization. Do we believe that? We cannot say for sure what he knew or did not know – we can only look at his actions. He has not shown any lgbtq+ hate, he has worked closely with one of the most famous lgbtq+ tv presenters for a long time, he has raised funds to stop bullying of ‘people who are different’. on balance, I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. However, I would now expect him to sever ties with that odious group and to make clear that he had nothing to do with any anti-lgbtq+ nonsense.
TheMarc
“What’s a shame is that people will make headlines just to get hits, just to get views.” Yep. Hence, a headline about Ellen’s “deafening” silence. When you guys double-down on attack, you definitely double down. How many Drew Brees stories will there be on Queerty in the next week do ya think? I’m betting at least 3 to 4.
happiness17
Ellen DeGeneres is a hypocritical beech! She’s all lovey dove with this ignorant homophobe. I have absolutely no respect for DeGeneres. This guy Bree is “beloved”? Beloved by all the hate groups he associates with!
TheMarc
I could care less about Ellen or Drew. Honestly. As you can see by the fact that I really didn’t mention them in my comment. My contention is with this site and how it dramatizes and sensationalizes every single solitary thing. It is a poor argument that Drew Brees is an unrepentant homophobe because of his association with FOF. They’re a deplorable and hypocritical organization that is well known for their hatred of gays. So should Drew Brees have really considered attaching his name to anything this organization does? Of course! But his bad judgment alone does not an anti-gay crusader make. This site is doing what they always do. Gloss over real anti-gay people and organizations because they have no celebrity status and publish story, after story, after story about anyone famous that could remotely be homophobic.
boymikefl
She’s turned her back (not the 1st time) on the non-hollywood gay community. Now the community knows where you stand, inside your gated community. Ellen, your sh*t still smells worse than ever. I will only watch if Madonna’s on. Kardashians season premier? Your show’s already in the toilet.
Hussain-TheCanadian
So who’s house are we burning again?
dhmonarch89
he did an ‘It Gets Better’ ad…has Dan Savage responded? (not a fan of Ellen’s- not being supportive of her, just asking)
JaredMacBride
This is a total non-story except on few muckraking gay-oriented blogs. No one cares. Please move on to some real news.
Brian
Don’t forget the handful of upset Twitter users that we are supposed to believe represent most of the gay community. Who probably get their information from the muckraking gay blogs.
But yeah, definitely almost nobody cares about this story.
kookookachoo
Absolutely right. Well said, both of you.
Malibu Eric
My issue with Ellen is she panders to her massive female heterosexual audience. She feigns breathless panting over shirtless gardeners, she pretends to be turned on by shirtless firemen and so on and so on. Does she do this with bikini clad women or any female for that matter? NO. She never goes near her true sexuality on camera. Sure, she has her wife on the show but the constant fake heterosexual yearnings is tiresome.
jomax36
Can’t stand Ellen. She is a celebrity fame whore. She doesn’t care on gays at all. She is soo annoying to watch. I don’t watch her, or support her. She is not relevant to me one bit. As far as I am concern she doesn’t exist to me.
Jerry
Ellen is not the gay hero everyone makes her out to be, she is only about ratings and name dropping.
jcoberkrom
Ellen has never been what she seemed.
She says, “Be kind to one another”, but some how doesn’t follow through in her own behavior. She bully’s her staff, guests and audience members on camera and calls it entertainment.
Her commitment to the gay community has only been in the context of her own self engrandizement.
innocentgay
Whoa now, ev’rybody calm y’alls titties! Ellen sure as anything isn’t perfect, but she’s probably waiting to hear her friend’s side of it, and what kind of talkshow host would she be if it wasn’t on camera? And Drew himself didn’t say or do anything homophobic that I’ve heard tell of; Focus on the Family talks about enough innocuous stuff in the churches themselves that I could easily see someone not knowing about their homophobia. We only know about it because that’s the part we always hear about from our information sources. Unless Drew reads a lot of Queerty and Huff Post, all he knows is Dr. James Dobson dispensing folksy parenting tips on the back of his church bulletin. The most remarkable thing I remember about Focus on the Family from decades of Southern Baptist church attendance is Dobson saying the Bible was basically silent on masturbation, so it’s probably ok in moderation.
Doug
DeGeneres is obviously avoiding taking any kind of stand on this, probably because of all the flack she got when she supported Kevin Hart. Over the years she’s become another Hollywood mannequin.