The Big Gay Super Bowl

Brendon Ayanbadejo for the NOH8 Campaign

I've been totally scooped on the whole blogging about football with a gay twist schtick. Who knew this year's Super Bowl would be all homo-a-go-go? Here's a quick (and very incomplete) run down.

It all started with Brendon Ayanbadejo of the Baltimore Ravens who has been a big advocate of LGBT rights especially during the past election when Maryland had a Marriage Equality initiative on the ballot. Frank Bruni, the New York Times resident gay, wrote about Ayanbadejo "Carrying a Cause to the Super Bowl" (link behind NYT paywall). Then, everyone from the Huffington Post to Fox News was covering the story.

Then, the homophobia hit the fan. I'm going to steal the always sharp Miz Sarah B's Facebook far better recap than I could write. (To pretend that I'm actually blogging this part, I'll add links and pictures).

So let's recap this 49er crap:

1. Chris Culliver says, "We ain't got no gay people on the team… They gotta get up out here if they do. Can't be with that sweet stuff. ... Nah, can't be ... in the locker room, man."

Confidential to Chris Culliver: If you are worried about gays looking at you in the locker room, perhaps you should not post selfies like this on the Internet.

2. He is at least the mouth-piece for an apology I cannot even unravel: "The derogatory comments I made yesterday were a reflection of thoughts in my head, but they are not how I feel."

3. Ahmad Brooks and Isaac Sopoaga deny their involvement with "It Gets Better" (anti-bullying video campaign).

4. They are shown their own video. (Which was made super publicly a couple years ago ... after a move.org campaign to get them follow the lead of the Giants, and is still easily found on youtube, even after It Gets Better founder Dan Savage takes it down from the It Gets Better website.)

5. These players then claim ignorance of the ad's intentions and refuse to comment further, ultimately suggesting that they are NOT against bullying. Nicely played.  

Fuck you. YOU'RE COOL. Fuck you.

6. Donte Whitner, also in the ad, and openly down for everyone to get to be themselves, points out he does not share Chris Culliver's homophobic sentiments.   

7. All sorts of 49er fans choose to lay aside the chasm between what we say are our values and what is happening right in front of us just in time for Super Bowl Sunday: "San Francisco 49ers Chris Culliver will begin sensitivity training and education immediately after the Super Bowl following his anti-gay remarks this week, then start volunteer work with at-risk homosexual youth nationwide. Culliver is scheduled to begin working with "The Trevor Project," an organization that provides crisis and suicide intervention to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth, according to his public relations representative, Theodore Palmer."  

8. My muscles are taut from all the eye-rolling my face has been practicing this week.

Thanks for the round-up of the cray, Sarah! Now, I'm back.

This whole brouhaha exploded on the Interwebs--and not just on little blogs like mine but notably on big mainstream sites. In fact, Cyd Zeigler at Outsports wrote a post titled "Thank You Chris Culliver for speaking your homophobia out loud" saying the silver lining of all this was that Culliver has brought mainstream attention to homophobia in football (go read the whole thing). Here are some highlights:

• ESPN: Chris Culliver backpedals: Comments, apology, lack of understanding, even as others fight discrimination
• The Nation: Is It Getting Better? Homophobia Rocks The Super Bowl
• Salon: How did the Super Bowl land on the front lines of the culture war?
• The Pioneer Press: Vikings' Chris Kluwe wants Chris Culliver to get a gay rights education
• The Atlantic: How Chris Culliver's Anti-Gay Comments Actually Started a Dialogue in the NFL
• My San Antonio (Dallas Cowboys and the NFL blog): Lombardi would have frowned on Culliver’s homophobic remarks

Then to top it all off, Beyoncé is headlining the halftime. Gawker is saying will be even gayer than last year's show with Madonna. This leads to the biggest gay question about Super Bowl XLVII: Will Beyoncé go with straight hair...

...or wavy...

  

 ...or curly?

Of course, I'm hoping for the most unlikely option: the full-on Foxy Cleopatra.

To sum it up: GO RAVENS!

PS: In the end, it doesn't really matter what any of think about the teams in the Super Bowl, who we want to win, or who we predict will win. 27% of Americans know the truth: God is going to pick the winning team based on their holiness.