Via JMG: MINNESOTA: Vikings Coach Suspended For Anti-Gay Remarks, Kluwe Vindicated
Early this year former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe declared
that Vikings Special Teams Coach Mike Priefer had called for rounding up
all gay people, putting them on an island, and "nuking it until it
glows." Kluwe has contended that his departure from the team came, at
least in part, because Priefer objected to his nationally famous
advocacy for LGBT rights. On Friday, the Vikings announced
that their investigation showed that Priefer had indeed made the
anti-gay remarks and that he has been suspended for three games. Via CBS
Sports:
The Vikings said that three-game
suspension could be reduced to two games provided that Priefer "also
attend individualized anti-harassment, diversity and sexual-orientation
sensitivity training." Priefer also apologized in a statement. "I owe an
apology to many people -- the Wilf family, the Minnesota Vikings
organization and fans, my family, the LGBT community, Chris Kluwe and
anyone else that I offended with my insensitive remark," Priefer said.
"I regret what has occurred and what I said. I am extremely sorry but I
will learn from this situation and will work on educating others to
create more tolerance and respect." The team announced that it would
donate $100,000 to LGBT rights charitable and educational organizations.
The Vikings report also contains "negative information" about Kluwe,
prompted him to threaten to release more "dirty" stories about the
Vikings. He also said that his $10M lawsuit against the team will
continue. The Vikings' action against Preifer is being denounced as
"homofascism" across Teabagistan.
More from
Think Progress:
The Vikings lawyers acknowledge that
Kluwe was encouraged by Vikings management to scale back his activism in
support of LGBT rights, but insist it was completely unrelated to the
substance of his activism. The analysis claims that “players and
management were concerned about the distraction that Kluwe’s activism
was creating, as opposed to the nature and content of his activism.” Of
course, it was the “nature and content of his activism” that ultimately
created the “distraction.” It’s hard to image if Kluwe was speaking out
to reduce childhood obesity that it would have become an issue.
Although the full
investigation has not been released, the Vikings lawyers did make sure
to include information that casts Kluwe in a negative light.
Specifically, the analysis alleges that Kluwe made crude jokes about the
Penn State rape scandal. Kluwe appeared to confirm the allegations were
true on Twitter but that the jokes were pervasive throughout the entire
team. No one claims Kluwe was fired for the jokes so it’s unclear what
relevance they had to the investigation.
Reposted from Joe Jervis
No comments:
Post a Comment