After writing an anti-gay slur in his eye-black over the weekend, Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar will serve a three-day suspension and pay a $82,000 fine.
“Today’s actions show that MLB and the Toronto Blue Jays are committed to creating an environment that all fans and families can enjoy, not a place where discriminatory language and anti-gay attitudes are accepted,” said Herndon Graddick of GLAAD, which will work with Escobar alongside the inclusive athletic organization You Can Play.
1willynilly
Seems to me like the punishment fits the crime.
Working with GLAAD seems like a great resolution to me, and a 3 day suspension is serious money when you make 5 million a year. Speaking for myself as an insulted gay man, I’m content.
Hopefully He will take to heart that acceptance and love are the winning attitude that we must all have to achieve victory in this life.
KEVINVENTION
Oh. Is that what that was supposed to be? I thought Bitch dropped her mascara pencil the wrong way. TWO WORDS: F*K YOU. Take your shit, your attitude, AND, your homophobic nonsense back to the island (where bitches don’t know how to appropriately apply makeup and you get a draft to the Big Leagues) that you came from. That stuff is INTOLERABLE, Sista… 🙁
balehead
Canada has equal right for gays so i’m sure he will learn from this….not like the u.s.
balehead
he has to do morning goods now….and accept the hate…
Mr. Enemabag Jones
Yeah, this is great. But why did he do it?
Avenger
He shouldn’t have been suspended and it’s ridiculous that he has to work with that silly “You Can Play” nonsense. People need to develop thicker skins. No one died because of his eye comments. But that’s liberal douche Canada for you. Let’s all hold hands, sing Kumbaya and pretend to like each other…since it’s “the law”.
I’m sure he isn’t sorry and is no less hostile towards the gays than he was before.
KEVINVENTION
I would NEVER make excuses (or try to on this piece-of-shit’s behalf). Anyone who does is either A) Delusional or B) Blinded by the promise of his (no doubt) hairless testicles (which you’ll never see — NEVER! (get it? he’s a HOMOPHOBE). This whole coming-to-his-rescue stuff is not only sickening, it does a HUGE disservice to one’s own self-respect. Sorry, been there, done that. There are REAL men out there, and HE/IT’s not one….
Ruhlmann
@KEVINVENTION: And neither is that enema nozzle right above you.
jwrappaport
@Avenger: I don’t think it would have been terribly different here in the US – homophobia is no longer socially acceptable, and I don’t see how stigmatizing it publicly is anything but a good, wonderful thing. Does anyone miss giant KKK rallies in DC? Do we really want more neo-Nazi marches? Public figures get called out by GLAAD all the time – sometimes it’s a bit much, but generally, GLAAD is right on the money and needs to call bigotry out when it rears its head. No one is saying that Escobar shouldn’t have the right to say whatever stupid, meanspirited things he wants, just that private citizens will be less inclined to work with him and work with him if he does.
I make no judgment about Canada’s hate speech laws and tend to favor our more liberal (in the original sense of the term) construction of free speech, but it doesn’t appear in the article that the law was implicated at all; it seems the MLB did this of its own accord. And please – there is nothing douchey about our neighbors up north. Frankly, I applaud a country that would see me have substantive legal equality and stand up for my rights proactively rather than dole them out to me one-by-one like bones to a dog. I applaud a country in which gays serving in the military is uncontroversial – where my rights to marry, to have a family, and to be free from workplace discrimination are vindicated with the greatest vigor and at the highest levels of government – kudos to Canada. We could learn a thing or ten from them. Eh?
jwrappaport
Typo in my first paragraph. The last sentence should read, “…will be less inclined to [associate] with him” rather than “work with him.”
KARUADAM
Why dose fucking Catholic, christian, should even be written about?.
KEVINVENTION
@Ruhlmann: If that made any sense, I’d probably give you an equally intelligent response. But it didn’t so I won’t…
TomMc
Great article in today’s ‘Toronto Star’ about this. It begins…
“During the weigh-in for their rematch in 1962, Cuban welterweight Benny (Kid) Paret called his opponent, Emile Griffith, a “maricon.”
Griffith is gay. A few hours later, he responded by beating Paret to death.
“He called me a name,” the aging fighter would tell the New York Times years later. “So I did what I had to do.”
That’s the power of that word.”
From: http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/article/1258218–was-yunel-escobar-s-face-painted-with-a-homophobic-slur-not-so-fast
Gigi Gee
@Avenger: Ah hem. Mr. Escobar is a professional athlete making $5 million per year to do his job: play ball. What’s NOT HIS JOB is to write epithets, homophobic or otherwise, on his face and go out onto the field during a game with said epithets exposed for the entire world to see. He brought shame to his team, which is not an easy thing to do considering the track record of the Blue Jays.
We don’t pretend to like people here in Canada. I won’t pretend to like you. If your words are truly representative of your personality then I think it’s safe to assume that I’m not alone in my dislike for you. But I digress. You’re quite correct that “no one died” because of his words but there are a lot of people who learned a valuable lesson: choose your words carefully.
Gigi Gee
@jwrappaport: Thanks for the support. Just as not all Americans own a gun and shop at Wal Mart, not all Canadians say: eh. That’s all.
Ruhlmann
@KEVINVENTION: You haven’t made an intelligent statement yet so why start now?
KEVINVENTION
@Ruhlmann: Whatever. Sorry you have some kind of misguided ax to grind. I don’t have any interest in engaging some bitchy old queen with a keyboard and too much time on their hands anyway…
Ruhlmann
@KEVINVENTION: And yet you keep doing it.
LubbockGayMale
@Avenger: Gee, you seem to be awfully uptight over such a trivial matter! If you’re comfortable being called names, or using slurs, so be it… but get over yourself!
streeteditions
The figure of $69,000.00 for each eye would have been more appropriate!