We just got done imaging what a country this would be if a professional baseball player (who’s still in the MLB) came out, and now we’ve got to start thinking about what would happen in a football player did the same? Too much sports! But also: It’s fun to dream up fairytales.
But as with all things gay and sports, you’re bound to hit a rough patch. While sending the topic to its “panel,” the Washington Post turned to folks like retired running back and openly gay David Kopay, who came out in 1975, three years after his NFL career ended. Kopay is all for an active NFL player to come out!
Not so enthusiastic, however, is Kenneth Hutcherson, a former NFL linebacker and current pastor of the Antioch Bible Church. You might’ve heard Hutcherson’s name before — he’s the guy who’s always there with a soundbite to declare how gay rights are not civil rights, and that comparing our struggle to the 1960s civil rights movement is a farce. So don’t look shocked that when asked whether NFL players should be coming out, he responds, “if a teammate has different views about what they’re attracted to in the showers it’s going to affect the team. It’ll destroy the oneness.”
Grab a spit-up cup, because it gets worse:
Men are going to be more comfortable with other heterosexuals. It’s like having a woman on the team or having a woman in the shower. How can you keep your mind on the game when you’re thinking about running back to the showers? It would have a tremendous effect. It would be safer for the team and the individual if they didn’t come out.
When you have a team worth millions and millions of dollars anything that would mess with the oneness must be removed from the team. Homosexuality is a very divisive issue — it would affect the camaraderie.
It’s not a civil rights issue like with racism — there’s no comparison. That’s not even apples and oranges, that’s like comparing apples to Chevys. Has a homosexual ever been considered 3/5ths of a person? Has a homosexual ever had to sit at the back of the bus? Has a homosexual ever had to use a different bathroom? I can’t change being black… but there are a lot of people, especially in our churches, that have changed being gay.
[…] What if a guy went out for the girl’s volleyball team? It’s just commonsense… but I don’t know why they call it commonsense anymore because it’s not very common.
At the very least, we appreciate Pastor Hutcherson — who is currently battling cancer — for looking into the economics of it all.
seth
just a stupid man living in a small bubble.
Cam
It’s always some fat unattractive straight guy that thinks all gays want him. Trust, me, if gays can serve in the MArines without hitting on people in the showers…I think this guy is safe.
Captain Freedom
@Cam: How bout the navy?
derek
Apparently, that big ol’ head harbors a brain the size of a walnut. I don’t understand why clowns like this merit airtime. As for his reference to the economic impact it would have, there might be some merit there, but it’s simply speculation. I’m guessing that if you had a winning team with a gorgeous gay stud as the quarterback, the novelty alone would translate into a financial windfall that no team owner could ever have imagined. Either that or the teams death knell.
Cam
@Captain Freedom: You said “@Cam: How bout the navy?”
_____________________________________________________________
Any branch really. Additionally, gay kinds manage to make it through high school without jumping their teamates in the shower. Could the same be said of straights showering with women? Doubtful. If anything we have way more control than they do.
galefan2004
Hopefully cancer does us all a favor and claims the life of this bigoted asshat. I never thought I would cheer for cancer, but GO CANCER! RAH! Anyways:
~@~
Has a homosexual ever been considered 3/5ths of a person?
~@~
No they have been considered a non-person. They haven’t been given the right to marry who they chose, work and live where they chose, or even serve the country when they chose. These are all things going on now not 100 years ago. I’m surprised he didn’t bring up the slavery card. I personally, and the same goes for all of my ancestors, never owned any slaves.
~@~
Has a homosexual ever had to sit at the back of the bus?
~@~
No they just get ran over by the bus at any possible opportunity. They also have to fear for their safety when riding public transportation and being out and open at the same time. The very fact that Rosa Parks wasn’t dragged off that bus and beaten by the mob on it shows that blacks have had it easier than gays for a long time.
~@~
Has a homosexual ever had to use a different bathroom?
~@~
Yes. Homosexual kids in schools don’t even use public bathrooms because doing so is just asking for harassment or worse.
~@~
I can’t change being black… but there are a lot of people, especially in our churches, that have changed being gay.
~@~
Just because someone can be miserable, delusional, and celibate their entire lives doesn’t mean they changed. Just because some “former” gay can marry some “former” dyke and bang out a few children on the very few occasions they actually have sex doesn’t make them straight either. I’m glad that this dude thinks he is smarter than the entire medical community world wide. I love how “gawd is in the mix” trumps scientific fact every time.
Now to get to the heart of the matter. It doesn’t matter if a person is out or in, if all they want to do is look at the men in the locker room (according to religious bigot) then they will do it regardless. I guess its ok for those players on the field to only think about getting high, popping steroids, and engaging in orgies after the game though.
I’m going to pray for this dude. I’m going to pray that cancer claims his bigoted ass so that I know longer have to hear his stupidity. Oh wait, I don’t pray, because that would condone religion, and I don’t condone the most destructive force ever created in the history of human kind.
galefan2004
@Captain Freedom: My money is on the air force. Have you seen some of the guys in the Air Force Thunderbirds? All I can say is, there are no more perfect specimens of mankind.
Andramata
What an asshole! I don’t wish death on anyone. But hope it’s throat cancer that takes out his vocal cords and he lives to see NFL players come out the closet.
So what you are telling me is…..a gay man from child hood plays sports all his life and excel at the sport that he/she plays then get scouted by different teams and is one of the best players in the sport; just so he can go to the locker room and see naked guys! woohooo! what a fucking idiot to say that. I’m 100% sure that when he was playing sports one or two of his teammates were gay. He didn’t know this but they were there. And it’s always the ugly ones that think gay guys want to see them naked. And so what if you are seen naked you think they will try to drop the soap in hopes that something happens. Talk about take it for the team huh!
Why he even got 15 mins I don’t know. Gay exist EVERYWHERE weather you know it or not we are here
Unwired
As per usual, another closeted freak projecting his own experience. It must have been devastating for him being rejected from the girls’ volleyball team.
Al Benson
3/5th of a person…hmmm OK if we are not oppressed like blacks, how oppressed are we? How much in the way civil rights do we deserve? 2/5th 4/5th?
Bitch, please!
@ANDRAMATA: From your lips to whoever he prays to. These fuckers need to shut to shut the hell up, one way or the other. They think they have all the answers and are being smart, when in fact they sound like the teacher in “Peanuts”: Wha, wha, wha.
@ GALEFAN2000: Got some good points there.
Doug
According to this mans logic we can’t even get on the bus! What an IDIOT!
reluctant commenter
I’m always shocked that black people seem incapable of realizing that there are gay black people. People who suffer discrimination for both race and sexual orientation. Bayard Rustin was gay and he worked closely with MLK to secure rights for people like Kenneth Hutcherson.
“Twenty-five, thirty years ago, the barometer of human rights in the United States were black people. That is no longer true. The barometer for judging the character of people in regard to human rights is now those who consider themselves gay, homosexual, or lesbian.”
[Bayard Rustin, 1986]
James
Seems to me the folk leaving comments and Hutcherson are working from the standard fallacy when the topic is race and sexuality. In answer to the man’s rhetorical and silly questions, the answer is yeah. Gays have been considered 3/5ths of a person. They are called black gays and lesbians.
liltails911
its crazy
Larry
I’m not religious, but I believe in a non-supernatural form of karma. It’s hard not to notice that people who devote their lives to promoting bigotry and dishonesty often get their just desserts in the end. Last time I heard, Lon Mabon (the guy who led the Measure 9 effort in Oregon in 1992) was living out of the Oregon Citizens Alliance’s office, while Anita Bryant ended up losing her entire career thanks to her campaign.
And now, Ken Hutcherson has cancer.
TANK
Interracial marriage as an abomination that would destroy the pillars of society was, at one time, common sense. Black people as slaves was also common sense. Common sense exists to be challenged and refuted.
Maverick69
@derek:
Really Derek a walnut? You’ve given the preacher too much credit. I thought a brain the size of a peanut. Just saying.
adolf
i played football in HS and college. and most of the guys on the team didnt shower in the locker room. and yes there was the “he’s gay rumor” and not once did i get treated different from any of the players. most of them i’d think didnt care as long as i took care of my shit on the field and was a good person. and no i never hit on one or tried to have sex with them. you dont cross that line. now if one of them hit on me who i was into, might have been different. I do have friends who played ball at major schools and did fool around with other players on their team. so there are gay players.
Lilly White
They let coloreds lead churches now? Sweet Jefferson Davis!
Lilly White
@galefan2004:
~@~
Has a black child ever been thrown out of the house and disowned from his family for being black?
Mercedes
The God of the universe has proclaimed homosexuality sin, and sin leads to degradation, in and out of the locker room. Your
issue is not with Pastor Hutch, your issue is with God.
TANK
Man invented god, so my issue is with man. And particularly, this man.
Andramata
@Mercedes: Mercedes sound more like a honda civic! I’m sure you look like a broken down tricycle too!
King James Version the one most use now. was written by man! After Christ King James himself was gay and had 3 lovers. Read your history before you start talking! So show me where GOD wrote that? Do you have any proof. You one sided Christians come here to spread hate and don’t even know what you are talking about. Before Christ Homosexuality was not a sin. It became a sin because some men who couldn’t get laid made it a sin and said god said so. Question are you married? I know you are not a virgin! Sinner.
thou shall love thy neighbor! sinner. Obesity and gluttony is a sin and I’m sure you are a fat cow! A sin is a sin is a sin. You got fucked before you were married, you are a fat cow, you are loney, and you come here to cast stone! look in the mirror and throw it at yourself! God is man made. Read your history. The Pope had a son! he had mistress’s out of wed lock. He sinned and died just like the rest of us will one day. Let everyone live his or her life! You would go to war in the name of Christ. Have you ever met him? have god spoken to you yet? if so do you have it on tape? Pastor’s think they have a right to say the gospel. Well the gospel is to each his own. Again, no one will excel in anything just to see a naked man in the shower. it’s a childlike and ignorant comment for a grown man to ever make! The fact that it was even written shows that he is a bigot and teaches it to other ignorant people. they should all be castrated and never be able to bare children to carry on this hatred against people!
jjm16
wow, it’s awkward to hear a privileged straight man reincarnate arguments that were, no doubt, once used by exclusivist, privileged white men.
redherring
“oneness”? eh. like a white’s only country club or business or school. interesting theory.
Mercedes
@Andramata: Wow, I think anyone reading your comments can see that you are an expert at hate speech. Again, your fight is not with the pastor or me for that matter, but your fight is with God. Read Romans 1:25-32 if you dare…
TANK
Our fight with man, the creator of god and gods. Specifically with you and this pastor. Now stop hijacking terms like “hate speech” for your own bigoted agenda. It’s like a white person who got cut off in traffic saying that they were lynched by the car in front of them.
Andramata
You a@Mercedes: are barking up the wrong tree. I know the bible inside out. Again that passage is from the King James Version who had his people re-write the book of god. Who was gay! and if you want to get technical
passage 25 states
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
hmmmm debate, maliciousness and whisperers. all falls under you! why are you here?
The king james version was PRINTED in 1611. Christ was LONG gone. Translation from the old testament.
but here are some reading you should know
Leviticus 19:17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him
John 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
Proverbs 10:18 He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool.
Psalms 25:19 Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.
What you should be reading is the book on Johns
taketh for example.
John 3:18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
Don’t quote me on parts of the bible for I know it! and there is a counter to everything that is written.
Mercedes
@Andramata:
Again, your battle is not with me but with God.
I don’t know why you can’t get that…hmmm…
TANK
@Mercedes:
I’ll repeat myself, too. The battle is with the bigots who created god to deflect responsibility for their bigotry. Man created god, and so the battle is with man–you and this pastor.
Ryan Gosling
@Mercedes: Honey, get over your delusions. There is no such thing as your “god”.
Mercedes
@TANK: Your battle is with God…I don’t know why that is so difficult to understand.
Man did not create God. But He did create you and loves you.
TANK
@Mercedes:
I’ll repeat myself, too. The battle is with the bigots who created god to deflect responsibility for their bigotry. Man created god, and so the battle is with man–you and this pastor.
Mercedes
@TANK: Just know that I will pray for you…
TANK
Christers are some of the dumbest people on earth…religionists period. Very, very dull people. They’re atheists, too. I just happen to believe in one less god than they do.
TANK
@Mercedes:
Whatever you need to do to justify your unethical beliefs and behavior. This issue is with people like you, who created god and use god as a justification for harmful beliefs.
RainaWeather
@James: THANK YOU!
RainaWeather
@Lilly White: Yes. Oprah Winfrey and my own dear grandfather come to mind. And many other Blacks in the past have been considered too dark for their lighter toned families.
Andramata
@Mercedes: I will never get it because I don’t believe in your god! Period. So you could say it’s with GOD but he is not here right now and since you are the one that brought it up it’s with you! and you alone. People always bring up god and they never go to church, or read the bible everyday, or live by the “rules” of the bible. For a pastor to sound so ignorant and for you to give me a passage to read when if you were GOD abiding you wouldn’t have made your comment. Again if my grip is with GOD tell him to come talk to me. Make me a believer. on your false hopes. I have read the old testament and the new testament. I am a gay man. I like what I have! meaning a penis! you people read the bible or have someone read it for you and then you the preach nonsense! Utter nonsense.
Religion was created to put order and fear in people. I have yet to see anyone die by the hands of god. Re-read your bible and you will see that love will conquer all. You can’t get rid of Gays no matter how you look at it. We are the most creative, and successful people out there. If we were to boycott all the things that you enjoy in life, clothes that you wear, furniture that you sit on, makeup that you wear, you will miss those things and wish you didn’t condemn us! In all reality you are biting the hand that feeds you which is a sin. See how I can take the words and put in me organize chaos to make it make sense to me? that’s exactly what you are doing.
Andramata
@TANK: This is for you and this pastor hutch. I’m not even putting caps on his name.
bible bigot – – someone whose religious beliefs hinders racial equality, social norms and sexual preferences
I’m sure your hatred comes from you reading the book of Leviticus.
Most of the bigotry comes from that book. Hatred, Slavery, the word abomination, and you are lucky you are in the 20 century. Back then you wouldn’t have a say and if you spoke the word of God and twisted it you would have been burnt for being a witch! hold your tongue!
Andramata
Sorry Tank that was for Mercedes 🙂
Kiwi
He can’t change being black? One second….. *Runs to grab 10 gallons of bleach.
GBM
Reading some of these awful comments
And it figured Queerty and Crew has to put a BLACK face up there or rather find an article of a black homophobe. Once again their idiotic “subliminal” racial rhetoric is beyond me. But it must really be true that there are no white, hispanic, asian. homophobes out there and I guess none of them in sports have ever spoke against gays either……YEAH RIGHT!
But keep it up Q’. Black gays who stand with this community are beginning to feel some kind of way with this shit. If the community wants to castigate all of us (African Americans) as being homophobic even us Black Gays. Just say it and be done with it. Because the damage is becoming severely broken!
And then however the cards may fall…JUST FALL
VIOLENT, OR NON-VIOLENT..
I’m sick of all of this shit with Queerty
Thess queens post all day about OBAMA doesn’t do this…Obama doesn’t do that. HRC and GLAAD doesn’t do anything. Black this, Black that!
Well what does Queerty do beside baiting and complaining and we all visit this site while she makes a coin off our anger.
What solutions do you have? What advocacy do you advise????
BESIDES MAKING A COIN OFF OF OUR ANGER!
Oh My God
@Mercedes: Tell God to bend over and grab his ankles. I’ll show him some issue.
Scat Kitty Cat1
@Mercedes: I shit in your “god’s” face, and wipe my ass with your bible. Your ‘god’ is a delusion…nothing but a manifestation of your mental illness.
alan brickman
fucking ignorant!! gay athelites would respect their bros before hoes!!
adolf
@GBM
get over it, it’s posted cause he said it. it was also posted on joemygod, and towelroad(i think). this site and other gay blogs post what ever comes across the news feed. we bitch about obama cause he is the prez. if it was mccain then we would talk about him, for the past 8yrs it was bush.
“Rush Limbaugh’s Homophobic Explanation of Gays + Obama … Is True”
“Anti-Gay Marriage Sen. John Ensign Not Doing Great Upholding Sanctity of Straight Marriage”
“3 Million Celebrated São Paulo Pride. 21 Of Them Injured From Explosive”
^there, 2 white and one from brazil. all on the front page.
RainaWeather
It’s all what you choose to report.
getreal
@Mercedes: I am sick of fundamentalists like you playing the God card. For the record I believe in God and am an active gay rights activist. The funny thing about people like you is you hide behind the bible which you use to rationalize your hate for those who are different than you blacks, jews, gays. It does not even say homosexuality is a sin in the bible. It says it is unclean just like pork,shellfish, touching pigskin (so football is considered unclean). It is considered a sin to shave, wear clothing with two kinds of fabric(there goes 80% of ALL clothes) not stone your wife on your wedding night if she is not a virgin, for a slave to not obey their master, and for a father it is permissible for a father to sell his daughters into slavery. Anyone who has actually read the bible knows that even christians ignore 95% of it. Most if it is superflous societal standards of a long bygone age. What cannot be argued is that Jesus never was recorded saying anything about homosexuality and everything he ever said is in support of equality not bigotry. I am so sick of people like you who are so obviously ignorant of the bible who come onto sites like this and spout bigotry and perpetuate the idea that all Christians are as stupid and prejudice as you and your ilk. Here is a suggestion if you have a problem with gays take it up with the manufacturer (God) beyond that mind your own business and let people live their lives.
osocubano
Just because he kept dropping the soap and everyone ignored him…
Jennifer Hill
Okay, i’m a bisexual female, meaning of course I like femalez & malez, now just because I “LIKE” femalez that doesen’t mean I like them all. When I went to my High School, & I sat there in class, I didn’t think of any girls or boys, & when it you think about it, if you love something sports wise or academic wise your not thinking about the people your thinking about what you love. And I find that who ever agrees with this non sense has ignorant thoughts!!
Not YOU ARE ignorant but you have ignorant thoughts,
or at least this one is!
Bill
He hates being black and gay.