In an interview, Major League umpire Dale Scott recently revealed that he's gay. Scott didn't make a big deal about this, as he's been with his partner for 28 years, and said the following on the matter:
"I am extremely grateful that Major League Baseball has always judged me on my work and nothing else. ... Obviously, when I sent that picture (to the magazine, of he and his partner), I knew exactly what it meant. In a small way, this was opening that door in a publication that wasn't going to be circulated nationwide. It could be picked up, but it's not Time magazine. I made that decision to go ahead and do it because I felt it was the right thing to do.
I realized that it could open a Pandora's Box, but this is not a surprise to Major League Baseball, the people I work for. It's not a surprise to the umpire staff."
Commissioner Bud Selig responded to the interview with the following statement:
"For 29 years, Dale Scott has been an outstanding Major League umpire. To his friends and colleagues throughout the game, Dale is universally regarded as a class act. All of us at Major League Baseball are very proud of him, just as we have always been."
According to the publication, Scott is the first male official in the MLB, NBA, NFL, or NHL to come out as gay.
Given all of that information, readers may be wondering why I titled this blog the way I did. It was due to many of the comments I read from ESPN.com members following the article.
Many of them read like this: "Who cares? Why don't all the straight umpires now come out to the world and see if they get a big story out of it? It's the same thing! I'm tired of having this gay agenda shoved down my throat! What a person's private life and sexual preference is, that's their own business, not ours! Stop posting these stories, ESPN! Stick to sports!"
When an event can be labeled as a "first" or a rarity, as Ron Burgundy would say, that makes it kind of a big deal. Just like Jason Collins and Michael Sam before him, Dale Scott was the first of his kind, a major sports official, to announce he was gay. So regardless of what these commentators want to believe, this is a big story.
Whether it's denial, ignorance, indifference, or a combination of the three, these before-mentioned commentators completely disregard the fact that the LGBT community has yet to attain equal rights in this country, and until that happens and people no longer fear coming out of the closet due to potential personal or professional repercussions, such stories are going to be posted in newspapers, magazines, and on websites all across the country.
Some commentators actually had the audacity to claim that there's no such thing as discrimination or of a certain demographic not having equal rights as the others. Allow me to educate them on the matter.
- There are still 14 states which don't allow same-sex couples hospital visitation rights
- There are 29 states which don't prohibit housing discrimination to LGBT individuals and couples
- There are 26 states where second-parent adoption has additional obstacles for same-sex couples (18 states where it's prohibited)
- There are 27 states where joint adoption for same-sex couples have additional obstacles (19 states where it's prohibited)
- There are 32 states which don't prohibit work discrimination based on both sexual orientation and gender identity (29 states which don't prohibit work discrimination just based on sexual orientation)
- There are 16 states which don't issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples
- There are still 15 states which don't have any hate-crime laws that include the LGBT community
- There are 32 states which don't have anti-bullying laws concerning the LGBT community
- There are 37 states which don't prohibit discrimination in schools against the LGBT community (36 states which don't prohibit discrimination in school with regard to sexual orientation)
But, besides that, everything is equal, and a person coming out as straight is the exact same thing as someone coming out as gay... As I said in the title of this piece, gosh, some people are stupid...
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11967887/major-league-baseball-umpire-dale-scott-comes-gay
http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/maps-of-state-laws-policies
"I am extremely grateful that Major League Baseball has always judged me on my work and nothing else. ... Obviously, when I sent that picture (to the magazine, of he and his partner), I knew exactly what it meant. In a small way, this was opening that door in a publication that wasn't going to be circulated nationwide. It could be picked up, but it's not Time magazine. I made that decision to go ahead and do it because I felt it was the right thing to do.
I realized that it could open a Pandora's Box, but this is not a surprise to Major League Baseball, the people I work for. It's not a surprise to the umpire staff."
Commissioner Bud Selig responded to the interview with the following statement:
"For 29 years, Dale Scott has been an outstanding Major League umpire. To his friends and colleagues throughout the game, Dale is universally regarded as a class act. All of us at Major League Baseball are very proud of him, just as we have always been."
According to the publication, Scott is the first male official in the MLB, NBA, NFL, or NHL to come out as gay.
Given all of that information, readers may be wondering why I titled this blog the way I did. It was due to many of the comments I read from ESPN.com members following the article.
Many of them read like this: "Who cares? Why don't all the straight umpires now come out to the world and see if they get a big story out of it? It's the same thing! I'm tired of having this gay agenda shoved down my throat! What a person's private life and sexual preference is, that's their own business, not ours! Stop posting these stories, ESPN! Stick to sports!"
When an event can be labeled as a "first" or a rarity, as Ron Burgundy would say, that makes it kind of a big deal. Just like Jason Collins and Michael Sam before him, Dale Scott was the first of his kind, a major sports official, to announce he was gay. So regardless of what these commentators want to believe, this is a big story.
Whether it's denial, ignorance, indifference, or a combination of the three, these before-mentioned commentators completely disregard the fact that the LGBT community has yet to attain equal rights in this country, and until that happens and people no longer fear coming out of the closet due to potential personal or professional repercussions, such stories are going to be posted in newspapers, magazines, and on websites all across the country.
Some commentators actually had the audacity to claim that there's no such thing as discrimination or of a certain demographic not having equal rights as the others. Allow me to educate them on the matter.
- There are still 14 states which don't allow same-sex couples hospital visitation rights
- There are 29 states which don't prohibit housing discrimination to LGBT individuals and couples
- There are 26 states where second-parent adoption has additional obstacles for same-sex couples (18 states where it's prohibited)
- There are 27 states where joint adoption for same-sex couples have additional obstacles (19 states where it's prohibited)
- There are 32 states which don't prohibit work discrimination based on both sexual orientation and gender identity (29 states which don't prohibit work discrimination just based on sexual orientation)
- There are 16 states which don't issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples
- There are still 15 states which don't have any hate-crime laws that include the LGBT community
- There are 32 states which don't have anti-bullying laws concerning the LGBT community
- There are 37 states which don't prohibit discrimination in schools against the LGBT community (36 states which don't prohibit discrimination in school with regard to sexual orientation)
But, besides that, everything is equal, and a person coming out as straight is the exact same thing as someone coming out as gay... As I said in the title of this piece, gosh, some people are stupid...
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11967887/major-league-baseball-umpire-dale-scott-comes-gay
http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/maps-of-state-laws-policies
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