Via Queers for Gears, this story about NASCAR and the perils of tweeting while homophobic (extract):
A Red Bull Racing crewman was fired for an anti-gay tweet he posted Sunday night following the Sprint Cup race at Infineon Raceway.
Prior to flying out of San Francisco on Sunday night, Jeremy Fuller, a contract employee and tire changer, posted on Twitter a photo of a gay pride banner on a car with the comment, “This is way [sic] I don’t live here!”
One of his Twitter followers responded with a tweet that read, “if we could get rid of them, it’d be a lot better.”
It appeared that Fuller later replied to that tweet, but did not retweet the original message. The response read: “lol.. Don’t we all wish!”
The New York Times takes a long look at the NAGAAA discrimination case (extract):
The case has also escalated into a flashpoint in organized gay sports. Sports leagues that exclude members based on sexual orientation — which is generally legal — are watching how the courts address the vexing question at the heart of this dispute: how should a group determine who qualifies as gay?
“It definitely takes an organization down a rocky path,” said Jennifer Pizer, the legal director at the Williams Institute, a policy group focusing on sexual orientation law. “It can be quite intrusive, awkward at best.”
Dozens of gay leagues exist throughout the country for most sports, from flag football to volleyball, with tens of thousands of participants. The Gay Softball World Series is celebrating its 35th anniversary this summer, and several hundred teams from around the country vie for the title. Leagues often allow some heterosexual participants, in the spirit of inclusiveness, but still wrestle with rules regarding the limits on heterosexual players.
The National Gay Flag Football League, for example, has long used the honor system to impose its heterosexual limit (20 percent of each roster for the annual Gay Bowl).
“We’ll look at our rule later this year, and we’ll ask ourselves the same questions: Is this the right rule? The right approach to a complex topic?” said Shane Kinkennon, the founder of a Denver flag football league and the national association’s commissioner.
“The L.G.B.T. community has become increasingly sensitive to the way people self-identify their gender expression,” he added, referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
The North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance limits the number of heterosexual players teams can have. The rule — jokingly referred to as the “straight cap” — is often a subject of spirited debate, and over time it has changed, from barring heterosexual players outright to the current policy of two per team.
And Sean Avery, after supporting the successful vote on marriage equality for the state of New York, calls on the NHL to take the lead in social progress (extract):
Now that Sean Avery has played his part in New York State's passage and adoption of the Marriage Equality Act that grants the same rights to all married couples regardless of sexual orientation, the Rangers winger would like the NHL to become involved in issues of social justice, beginning with this one.
"I understand that the NHL represents 30 different owners who come from different backgrounds and hold different viewpoints, but I think it would be meaningful for Gary [commissioner Bettman] and the Board of Governors to open themselves up for conversation about this issue," Avery told The Post yesterday.
Avery both appeared in a public service announcement in support of the bill and went to Albany on June 14 to lobby undecided state senators on its behalf.
"The support I received from the Garden, Mr. [James] Dolan, Glen [Rangers general manager Sather] and [president of MSG Sports] Scott O'Neil meant everything to me, but it was a little disappointing not to have heard from anyone connected with the league," Avery said.
"It would be great for the NHL to take the lead among professional sports leagues in terms of social equality and justice and be out front and progressive regarding issues like this."
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