| Chicago White Sox player upsets gay community with slur
by
Michael Rogers
Illinois gay rights activists are upset that Chicago White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen, pictured in photo, used anti-gay slurs during an interview, news outlets have reported today. When speaking about Chicago Sun-Times Journalist Jay Mariotti, Guillen told a reporter, "What a piece of [expletive deleted] he is, [expletive deleted] fag."
The photo, obtained by PageOneQ via the conservative-leaning blog, Wizbang, was taken following the final World Series game on October 27, 2006. Keith Boykin reported that the man Guillen is kissing is his son. Boykin wrote that despite the family connection, the well-photographed kiss helped to break new ground for gays in the sports world.
Blogger Andy Towle of Towleroad.com reported on a Chicago Tribune article in which Guillen's habit of kissing all of the players on his team was reported. Towle excerpted the origianl article, which is no longer available on-line:
I noticed the kissing for the first time Saturday night, but I kept it to myself because before the pennant race, I hadn't been watching baseball games from beginning to end. I thought maybe kissing was the new thing from the new metrosexual male athlete.
But after consulting with several colleagues, I now understand that this kissing phenomenon is much more specific to the South Side team's metroSOXual manager.
On Sunday night, Guillen hugged and kissed his son, which isn't unusual. But then he also hugged and kissed Contreras. A few minutes later in the clubhouse, he hugged and kissed Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf after Reinsdorf was given the American League Championship trophy. (Sources tell me that Guillen hugged and kissed Sox pitcher Freddy Garcia after one playoff win, but I didn't witness that.)
The picture was the subject of a 'caption contest' on Wizbang, the results of which may be seen here.
The photo was published at Here-Now.org, the website of NPR affiliate station WBUR in Boston, where, ironically, the photo ran with a story that covered both the White Sox game victory over the Houston Astros and the coming out of WNBA player Sheryl Swopes.
Guillen defended his remarks by saying that in his home country calling someone a 'fag' is not about sexual orientation, but about a man's courage.
Another Chicago Sun-Times writer, Greg Couch, wrote in a column on the incident that Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig ought to suspend Guillen for his statements. Couch also wrote about an incident during which Guillen publically equated being gay with being a child molester.
The full MSNBC report on the incident may be read here.
The ESPN report n the incident may be read here.
Chicago Sun-Times Columnist Greg Couch's column may be read here.
The report from ChicagoSports.com, the on-line sports section of The Chicago Tribune, may be read here.
Excerpts from the ChicagoSports.com article follow:
#
Gay rights activists criticized White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen on Wednesday for using a derogatory term for homosexuals during a profanity-laced tirade against Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti.
Rick Garcia, executive director of Equality Illinois, a local gay rights group, said the term Guillen used was "offensive."
...
This was not the first time Guillen has been accused of making anti-gay remarks. Prior to a game last August, he greeted a friend in the dugout by yelling, "Hey, everybody, this guy's a homosexual! He's a child molester!"
....
He acknowledged at the time that his use of certain words may be interpreted differently in the United States than it is in his native Venezuela.
"Obviously in this country it's a little bit different than our culture," he said. "I grew up in a country that was completely opposite from here. Now you have to learn the process."
Garcia doesn't believe Guillen has learned anything.
"This isn't the first time that he's made an anti-gay slur so I think the White Sox organization needs to look at one of their higher profile people using slurs that are unacceptable," Garcia said. "They need to do something about it."
|
Originally published on Wednesday June 21, 2006.
|