That Sports Thing

I've been noticing a strong trend in major sports figures and organizations against homophobia. It's more apparent in the UK than here -- the pushback seems to be stronger, with rugby clubs being fined for homophobic slurs by their fans, but it's starting to gain momentum here, too.

The Sean Avery episode is pretty instructive. Johnette Howard has a good commentary at ESPN:

It's hard to gauge who did more to advance the cause of legalizing gay marriage in the past week -- New York Rangers forward Sean Avery (the first pro athlete to publicly support New Yorkers for Marriage Equality), or the father-and-son sports agent team of Don and Todd Reynolds, whose swift attacks of Avery's stance caused a remarkable thing to happen. The Reynolds' reactions caused thousands of other people to step forward and out themselves as gay rights supporters, too, in a louder, longer show of support for Avery on Twitter and Facebook, radio and TV, in blogs and newspapers and sports fan message boards than Avery's appearance in a video advertisement for the marriage equality campaign might have generated on its own.

All of which led to a second surprise: Avery's support for gay rights isn't unique in male pro sports at all.

It's an excellent article -- read the whole thing.

And having the kind of mind that makes wide connections, there's another aspect to the whole trend if you back away a bit -- but we're still in the New York marriage context.

As gay rights advocates intensify their campaign to legalize same-sex marriage in New York, the bulk of their money is coming from an unexpected source: a group of conservative financiers and wealthy donors to the Republican Party, most of whom are known for bankrolling right-leaning candidates and causes.

Their behind-the-scenes financial support — about $1 million in donations, delivered in recent weeks to a new coalition of gay rights organizations — could alter the political calculus of Albany lawmakers, especially the Republican state senators in whose hands the fate of gay marriage rests.

Add in the outcry over Paul Clemens taking on the defense of DOMA on behalf of King & Spaulding, and K&S subsequently dropping the case. (Although as it seems now, the reasons that K&S dropped the case had nothing to do with HRC -- it was, at least in part, the strong negative reaction from their own employees. Here's a good summary of the whole thing from Timothy Kincaid.)

The point, I think, is fairly obvious. Look at the trends in public polling over the past few years, and there has been a rapid and significant shift in public opinion about gay civil rights, including marriage, in our favor. The anti-gay Christianists are finding themselves more and more on the margins, which is what's making them so shrill these days. (Except for Peter LaBarbera -- he was always shrill. It's probably the pornography getting him all worked up.) The only ones who don't seem to get it are Republican legislators, at all levels, and the mainstream corporate press.

Bottom line: It's no longer respectable to be anti-gay.