Bluejays’ Escobar to Participate in Outreach Program

I have to give a shout out to the management team behind the Bluejays.  Today the news came out that Yunel Escobar will be receiving a three game suspension for wearing eye black with a homophobic slur scrawled into it.  The pay he would have generated during these games will be donated to You Can Play and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.  Escobar will also be undergoing sensitivity training, after which he will participate in an outreach initiative aimed at teaching others about sensitivity and tolerance towards the acronym community.

Image Source – Getty Images

You can read the official MLB article here: 
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120918&content_id=38609650&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

This was released Monday prior to today’s committee meeting:  
http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120917&content_id=38585782&vkey=news_tor&c_id=tor

I’ve written about the steps being taken by Major League Baseball, and specifically certain MLB teams in the past…  and this just further demonstrates their commitment to equality.  It’s a good thing when people, so brightly spotlighted in the public arena are willing to take an obvious stand against discrimination and bullying.  All too often people report only on the negatives.  This may have become a story based on the ignorant actions of one man (who has since apologized and will be actively working to make things better) it has become a story of a team and an organization willing to do what is right, and that’s something worth noting.

A2Z – Jerseys & Jokes

 

Around here, sports are important…  especially hockey.  It’s a big part of Saskatchewan, and nowhere is that famous Prairie Machismo more apparent than in the locker room.  Or so I’ve been told.

Gay jokes run rampant, along with comments about the prissy nature of certain plays or players.  It’s a tough place to feel welcome as a member of the LGBTT2QIA community.  Any time your personhood is called into question, even if it’s done in jest (sometimes, especially so) it breaks you down.  After a while, it can all become too much.

In an effort to curtail this type of anti-gay banter and sentiment, Patrick Burke (in honor of his late brother, Brandon Burke) began a campaign we now know as “You Can Play”.  At it’s very heart all it states is that if you can play, you can play.  Nothing else matters.  It’s something we all needed to hear, and continue to have reinforced.

I encourage you to take a minute to read this article Burke wrote about his brother, the decision to come out, and how it affected all their lives.  It is well worth the read, every encouraging paragraph:  Never Forgotten, Patrick Burke Remembers his Pioneering Brother.

For more on You Can Play, check out these links:

• 
  http://youcanplayproject.org/
  
• 
  http://twitter.com/YouCanPlayTeam
  
• 
  http://www.hockeyhistory.org/2012/03/fighting-for-gay-rights-in-professional.html
  
• 
  http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2012/03/04/patrick-burke-speaks-about-players-lending-support-to-you-can-play-project-for-gay-athletes/
  

So next time you’re about to make a joke about how gay someone or something is, stop and think.  Just because others do it, doesn’t make it okay.  In fact, it’s NOT okay – and people are finally starting to get it.  The locker room should be a place of camaraderie, of solidarity… not of exclusion and loathing.

 

 

Prairie Machismo

There are some people who doubt it’s existence…  but I believe today’s photo of the day will prove that it is alive and well here in the heart of the prairies.  Prairie machismo is that force that fuels everything that some men do.  The force that compels them to be “bigger than”, “stronger than”, “tougher than” the next guy.  It is the force that inspires jokes about rednecks on the prairie.  It goes beyond testosterone driven displays well into the range of blatant stupidity.  It is the crushing of beer cans on the forehead while pouring gasoline on the bbq and wearing nothing but green and white body paint stupidity…  It is, as this man has done, wearing shorts and a tank top when it is five degrees celcius out.

So kudos oh great and mighty prairie man.  For proving, once again, that “real” men are all about scaring little children by displaying way too much flesh.

Real Men Don't Get Cold

Seriously though?  Come on guy…  cover up.  It’s cold out there.  You don’t look tough, you look silly.  Everyone else is out with long pants, jackets, hats, and mittens….  dressing like it’s still Summer is just plain goofy.