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Sunday, May 6, 2012

University of Nebraska football coach expected to once again abuse his position to decry equality for LGBT persons

On ESPN.com, Rick Reilly looks forward to the intervention expected on Monday by University of Nebraska assistant football coach Ron Brown, who recently threw the bible like a flaming football straight in the (damned) souls of those supporting non-discrimination for LGBT people in Omaha, and who aims to repeat his hate at a similar hearing in Lincoln. Reilly speaks to a "success story" for Brown as a preacher, the conversion of a young Nebraskan, Brett Major, who happens to be gay. Here's an extract from the piece:

"That was a milestone for me," Major says. "I decided I wanted to live a Christian life from that moment on."

And now Coach Brown says he's going to hell.

"I couldn't care less," says Major, who is getting his master's in psychology at Wake Forest. "I know God doesn't make a mistake. He didn't put me on this earth to be banished to hell."

Since that day with Brown, Brett has been the most devout in his family. He's the one reminding his family members to say their prayers at night. He was a leader in his high school church group. In college, he rode his bike across America as a fundraiser to build free housing.

What company would want a man like that working for it? "Ron Brown can think whatever he wants," Major says. "I just don't want him to put up barriers in my life. Just allow me to get a job I deserve. Just don't get me fired. I don't have to report to Ron Brown at the pearly gates."

Brown, 55, speaks out often about Christ and against homosexuality, which is his First Amendment right. But Ron Brown wouldn't get one-tenth of these offers to speak if he weren't a Huskers coach. He's an in-state celebrity. He admits he uses Huskers football as a platform to get his message out. His personal opinions can't be separated from his job. There are three paragraphs in the Nebraska media guide about his Christian work. At the Omaha public hearing, he gave his address as Nebraska's Memorial Stadium.

But should a man who campaigns for the right to discriminate against anybody -- gays, Asians or pregnant women -- be employed at a state-funded university that has a specific policy against such discrimination?

Read in full HERE.

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