To steal from Myles Brown on twitter:
@mdotbrown
Why are you looking for gay innuendo in everything you say? Strength and security determine manhood. Not sexual orientation. It's lame.
@mdotbrown
"Why do they call it homophobia? I'm not scared of gay people." No, you're just scared of someone thinking you're gay :/
This pretty much covers it.
BEING GAY IS NOT A BAD THING.
So anytime you use a slang term that suggests you feel that being gay is a bad thing, whether it's an insult or not, you're perpetuating a problematic cultural message, which is that homosexuality is a negative trait.
There are a lot of things you can say that have a negative effect -- especially if you're a high profile person -- even if not a single reasonable person is actually offended by it.
Totally irrelevant to Hibbert's comments. He didn't say anything about gays being "bad".
But he did. He used the term "no homo" after he said something, which is to say, he made sure to clarify -- though perhaps half-jokingly -- that he wasn't trying to say anything gay. That's pretty clearly in the category of acting as if being gay would be a bad thing. Why go out of your way to clarify, unless you're concerned that somebody might call you out for being gay for having said something?
As Mike Brown said quite well, he was afraid of somebody thinking he's gay.
You think that Hibbert's concern was that somebody was going to think he was gay? The phrase "they stretched me out so much" is going to lead others to think he's a homosexual?
That's just silly. He was making a joke, after realizing his words could sound like sexual innuendo. He then made an immature joke about that innuendo. However, he clearly wasn't trying to cover up the fact that some might now consider him gay.
If I got this right, Hibbert followed his "stretch me out" comment by essentially saying "I'm no homo". It was a joke and I don't think he was literally worried that people would think he is a homosexual just because he used the term "stetched me out" in a basketball context. He made a joke that was meant for his buddies in the living room, not for national TV.
However, the basis of his joke DOES rest with making fun of denying one's homosexuality. Had he followed "No Homo" with "not that there's anything wrong with that" the joke would have come full circle, though it still would have been inappropriate for a national audience (IMO).
Hibbert makes public comments but he is not a stand-up comic. Because his comments are off the cuff they tend to be seen as more revealing about his nature or 'true beliefs'. That may very well be unfair to him, but righteous condemnation in such a circumstance is also understandable. Hibbert pays the price any public figure SHOULD pay if they say something that no adult should say publicly (unless you are paid to be funny and insulting). Whether they should say it privately may be a topic for another day.
When Hibbert jokes lightly about that he is 'no homo', he is (probably unwittingly) contributing to a culture that still fears homosexuality and therefore his statements can help solidify the likelihood that a young homosexual somewhere will deny to others and to himself a core aspect of who he is. In other words, it perpetuates an anxiety, a self-doubt and perhaps even a self-hatred for some (certainly not all) young boys who are in the midst of an identity struggle. In a welcoming non-homophobic world, a young gay or lesbian boy or girl should not spend one minute of his/her childhood worrying about what others will think of him or her with regard to their homosexuality.
Hibbert, probably completely without any intended malice, put some doubt/worry in a child's mind somewhere about the literal interpretation of his joke, that 'uh-oh, someone might think I am gay'.
Topic: Roy Hibbert apologizes for post-game gay slur (Read 23114 times)