Michael Sam And The NFL's Virulent Homophobia - HuffPo

[theHandpuppet]

1. I found these passages particularly telling (and galling)

...Worse still, there's no real pushback on homophobia in the NFL. GLAAD has sadly become a joke when it comes to taking on defamation, particularly within sports. The LGBT group defers to the gay ally groups working with the teams, like You Can Play, co-founded by Patrick Burke, a straight man who has a foot in the door of professional sports, working for the NHL. These groups do not see it as their role to hit hard against the teams and the leagues, working to educate from inside (and probably don't want to mess up professional relationships either).

The Human Rights Campaign, though a Washington lobbying group, clearly saw a void in GLAAD's negligence and rightly sent out a blistering press release about the Tyree hire a few weeks ago, only to be slammed by Burke, the straight guy lecturing the gays on how they should criticize homophobia.

So, there's no real pressure from the outside, certainly not like the sustained pressure we've seen on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell regarding domestic violence, which at least forced him to finally change course last week, even if it will require continued pressure. Or like the corporate and political pressure, even from U.S. senators who signed a letter, to get the Washington Redskins to change its racist name. Until we see that kind of shaming from the outside regarding homophobia in the NFL -- a non-profit, by the way, which gets all kinds of tax breaks -- until LGBT groups and politicians stand up and take it on rather than cowering, homophobia will continue to get a pass....