The American transgender community is actively recruiting the next LGBT athlete. Except this time, unlike Michael Sam, they would like said athlete to actually be good.
Writing in SI’s “The Cauldron,” Lyndsey D’Arcangelo opines that what would really stop terrorist attacks like the one on the gay nightclub in Orlando, is an LGBT power forward who can get a triple-double:
“It’s 2016. Why are we still so hated?
Amidst the wall-to-wall media coverage, I watched Jason Whitlock and Colin Cowherd launch their new television FOX Sports show, Speak For Yourself. (Admittedly, I tuned in more out of curiosity and a need for distraction from the sad stories of grief, loss and confusion that continue to pour in from Orlando.)
Whitlock and Cowherd started with a clip of LeBron James speaking and expressing his deepest sympathies over the attack. Fine. OK. And then Whitlock, a man I respect and whose opinions are rarely noncontroversial, shared his own thoughts on the situation in Orlando.
I sat up in my seat.
“In sports, there are opportunities, we’ve seen it for sports to be a leader in social change, and clearly I don’t want to avoid this man or this tragedy that affected the LGBT community, and there’s a reason why the LGBT community wants the sports world to embrace people of the LGBT community and have a role model for gay and lesbian athletes.”
In reality, we already do have many, many wonderful LGBT athletes who are role models for our community — both past and present. Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King, Robbie Rogers, Jason Collins, Wade Davis, Abby Wambach, Brittney Griner, Michael Sam, Megan Rapinoe and Chris Mosier are just a few. We in the LGBT community are more well represented now than ever before.
But Whitlock isn’t wrong in taking things a step further by addressing the need for a prominent LGBT athlete to help transcend the hate.
Whitlock went on:
“Muhammad Ali just passed. He opened a lot of doors for African-Americans. He took a bold stance against the Vietnam War. I think we’ve reached a time, I hope that there’s some athlete out there, some prominent athlete out there, that says, ‘You know what? It’s time for me to stand all the way up and take on this responsibility and be a trailblazer like Muhammad Ali, that we need that in sports.’ It’s important that kids have this role model. Maybe we can remove some of this hate and fear of people in the LGBT community.”
Yes, truly, there is nothing that will bring Raqqa to its knees, and herald the end of the hate empire burgeoning in the heart of the Middle East, more than a transgender center fielder who can hit for the cycle. Jokes aside, this is the kind of tortured thinking that gets people killed.
Not only do hateful and murderous people see this kind of thinking as pathetic weakness, but it also betrays a complete misunderstanding of why terrorists hate gays, Christians, and basically everyone else who doesn’t swear allegiance to Islam.
They don’t hate us because they don’t know about us. They hate us because they do know about us. Liberals have such an immensely high opinion of themselves, that their explanation for all hate towards them eventually boils down to people not knowing the “true them.” Because, of course, if people know the true them, then they couldn’t possibly hate them since they’re so amazing.
Or, they feel like they’re only hated because Jihadis confuse them with those hateful radical right-wingers. When in reality, as the Orlando night club attack proves, Jihadis hate them as well. Just for different reasons. Since they attacked an establishment that embraces a lifestyle which Christianity rejects, and liberals champion.
D’Arcangelo goes on:
“…perhaps now is the perfect moment for someone else to come forward and put it all out there for the world to see—someone with the star power, charisma and ability to challenge fans’ own ideology.
Someone like Muhammad Ali.
Imagine, for a moment, that Andrew Luck was gay. Or Russell Westbrook. Or Stephen Curry. Or Sidney Crosby. As a sports fan, what would that mean? Would any of those players’ sexual preference affect the way you see them as all-time greats? Would it affect your desire to cheer for them and wear their jersey? Would it soften or change your view on LGBT people, the way Ali eventually softened and changed views on African Americans?
Would it cause you to listen and think when a superstar LGBT athlete spoke up about LGBT issues close to his or her heart, the way Ali caused millions to listen and think when he spoke up about religious and racial issues close to his heart?”
Would a Christian actor or Broadway dancer who openly opposed homosexuality cause gays to question their ideology? Probably not, which is cool. So why should a gay superstar athlete cause straight people to question theirs?
D’Arcangelo is also fishing here. As I’ve written before, there has been a recruitment drive for gay athletes to out themselves for a while now. Not wanting to lose their place in the news cycle, liberals have resorted to trying to pressure and entice athletes to publicly admit to being gay.
Also, what is the “ideology” of fans that needs to be changed? Does the average American sports fan share the foundational beliefs of Omar Mateen? I think we would have a lot more Orlandos if that were the case. But, we don’t, because the foundational beliefs of most American sports fans command them to love gays. Though, they may see them as sinners.
A belief apparently not reciprocated by Floyd Corkins II, the radical left-wing, gay activist who shot a guard at the Family Research Council building. Seems like hate is a two-way street after all.
