Tim Hardaway: "I Hate Gay People"--UPDATE
Watched the news tonight, and had I been drinking something, it would have snorted out my nose. Did Hardaway just say what I thought he said? My husband and I sat dumb-struck. And then I laughed. What an idiot!
Oh my goodness, forget Kramer and blitzed Mel Gibson, both of whom rambled and ranted mindlessly or angrily. Hardaway was clear, lucid and unequivocal:
"First of all I wouldn't want him on my team," said Hardaway. "Second of all, if he was on my team I would really distance myself from him because I don't think that's right and I don't think he should be in the locker room when we're in the locker room."Fill in the blanks here:
Le Batard took Hardaway to task, pointing out that his comments were 'flatly homophobic' and bigoted, but that only seemed to stir up the former point guard.
"Well, you know, I hate gay people," Hardaway said in response to Le Batard. "I let it be known I don't like gay people. I don't like to be around gay people. I'm homophobic. It shouldn't be in the world, in the United States, I don't like it."
"I hate..."
- Black people
- White people
- Women
- Men
- Asian people
- Straight people
- Republicans (wait a minute....)
UPDATE:
On the local radio talk show, they were discussing this and lots of people called in saying that if they were a guy they wouldn't want to walk around naked in the locker room with some guy staring at them. The host said that "I don't think women would like me in the locker room with them."
Well. It does remind me of a time my sister was on a business trip and the company she used to work for required that travelers have roommates to cut costs. She woke up one night with her lesbian roommate next to her bed, touching her arm and looking at her. She totally freaked out. My dad said that this was a problem at GM years ago, and they made the blanket decision to not allow roommates, period, for this very reason.
And yet, in sports, you're changing clothes, sitting around in various states of undress (same goes for theater) with people of various backgrounds. A girlfriend of mine played basketball for a lesbian coach, who ended up with one of the players (this leads me to think that the coach probably did "notice" and then act on her attraction to her player). My friend said that she was bothered getting dressed and undressed in front of her coach. I played high school basketball and I think my roommate at a basketball camp was a lesbian, but she wasn't on the prowl or interested in me or knew I had a boyfriend and was taken. Whatever. It wasn't an issue. In fact, in all my sports involvement over the years, it never came up as a problem.
I guess the topic is more charged and nuanced than I first thought it to be. First, it's a free speech issue. Like other "victims" lately, people are "free" to say anything. And the people offended by them are free to express themselves, too. Second, some people don't feel that they'd be comfortable dressing and undressing around someone with sexual interest. (Guys put up with female reporters in the locker-room don't they? Are the women attracted to them? Would the guys mind if the woman was attracted to them? Conversely, how would women feel about men in the locker room? Are we going to acknowledge a gender difference--men are more visually attracted and tend to undress women who have clothes on, forget naked women ogling? Do gay men do the same with other gay/straight guys?
Another issue is Hardaway's word "hate". I don't think it is healthy for anyone to hate someone. Hate what they do, hate bad actions, but hate the person? Chronic hate is corrosive to the soul. I worry for the Left for this very reason. Hate can be a powerful motivator but it eventually burns the motor out. Hopefully, Hardaway will be able to see gay people as people first and their sexuality as a part of them.
A society that focused on commonalities instead of separation by race, creed, class gender, sexuality, etc. would go a long way to creating the inclusive environment the Left professes to want.
3 comments:
The last two in your list don't fit because they require choice. So it comes down to whether homosexuality is a choice. Hardaway may think it is a choice. No gay gene has been found.
Personally I think it comes down to very early socialization--interactions with parents and older siblings etc., going back so far into one's personal history sometimes that it might as well be genetic even if it isn't.
But there are different variety of gays and one I grew up with seemed indeed to make a choice to come out, leave his wife and take up with an older man in Hollywood. This way he was able to get more attention, be more passive, and maybe even break into show business doing God knows what because he didn't have any particular talent or skill. He eventually got AIDS from his more promiscuous sugar daddy and died...of course.
I miss Clint and for that reason I sorta think I hate gays too sometimes. I thought his choice to be gay was unnecessary. I remembered him when he had a crush on a female classmate. So what was it, his destiny or choice?
So Hardaway wasn't very PC about it. He was socially rude, that's all. Men work hard to socialize their sons to be men...they're hard on each other over this issue but that's what makes them the men we need to have in order to survive.
I had posted earlier on this and it was lost, darn it. I heard the interview and hardaway didn't come off as being hateful or crazed. This is America still, well just barely and there is such a thing as free speech no matter how misunderstood that term has come to be. Who's gonna do the smackdown? NO Body. Why? Cause the media is between a rock and a hard place....one minority saying unkind things about another minority. This is going to just disappear. We may not hear from this guy again but the media will not make an issue. c
I'll worry about Tim Hardaway's hate when the msm worries about William Arkin's hate.
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