Saturday, February 17, 2007

Amaechi Fallout #2: To Know Us Is To Love Us

As the firestorm continued over Tim Hardaway's anti-gay remarks, the openly gay mayor of North Miami invited Hardaway to spend a day with him. ''We're just trying to show him that there are living, breathing people that just happen to be gay,'' said Mayor Kevin Burns, who lives with his partner of 23 years and an adopted daughter.

It is much easier to hate people in the abstract. I wonder how many gay people travel in Hardaway's circles only he's to dumb to know it.


Recap of Hardaway's comments:
"You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known," Hardaway said. "I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States."

Hardaway was a guest of Miami Herald columnist Dan Le Batard on Miami sports radio station WAXY-AM and was asked how he would deal with a gay teammate. When asked if he would accept an active player's coming out, such as that of retired NBA center John Amaechi, Hardaway replied: "First of all, I wouldn't want him on my team.

"And second of all, if he was on my team, I would, you know, really distance myself from him because, uh, I don't think that's right. And you know I don't think he should be in the locker room while we're in the locker room. I wouldn't even be a part of that," he said.
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