Does the NFL Promote or Instill Homophobia?

From ESPN:

The NFL on Wednesday said it would investigate a report that at least one team at the scouting combine asked a draft prospect about his sexual orientation.

Colorado tight end Nick Kasa told ESPN Radio Denver on Tuesday that he was asked a series of questions that touched on sexual orientation at the just-completed combine in Indianapolis.

"[Teams] ask you like, 'Do you have a girlfriend?' 'Are you married?' 'Do you like girls?' " Kasa said in the radio interview. "Those kinds of things, and you know it was just kind of weird. But they would ask you with a straight face, and it's a pretty weird experience altogether."

In the statement announcing it would check into Kasa's claim, the NFL said "teams are expected to follow applicable federal, state and local employment laws."

"It is league policy to neither consider nor inquire about sexual orientation in the hiring process. In addition, there are specific protections in our collective bargaining agreement with the players that prohibit discrimination against any player, including on the basis of sexual orientation," the league said. "We will look into the report on the questioning of Nick Kasa at the scouting combine. Any team or employee that inquires about impermissible subjects or makes an employment decision based on such factors is subject to league discipline."

NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith addressed the league's promised investigation in a statement Tuesday to USA Today Sports.

"I know that the NFL agrees that these types of questions violate the law, our CBA and player rights," Smith said. "I hope that they will seek out information as to what teams have engaged in this type of discrimination and we should then discuss appropriate discipline."

Those are nice words from the NFL, but the problem is the willful ignorance and likely ignoring at the top.  Five will get you ten this is not the first time this has happened and that there are people high up in the league who probably know this type of questioning is going on.  Why would the league ignore it?  I can think of one big and stupid reason:  Football is a macho man's sport and there's no room in it for sissies (i.e, gays).

No doubt, this type of questioning has gone on many, many times and the league probably does one of those "don't violate the law" statements, but then wink, wink, nod, nod, they're not going to punish a team for weeding out or closeting gays.

An investigation?  Anyone think we'll actually hear something substantive come out of this investigation?

There's probably only way homophobia is going to end in sports.  Sports Illustrated writer and NPR contributor Frank Deford mentioned it today in the first line of his story (which was on a different topic): The great social quest in American sport is to have one prominent, active, gay male athlete step forward and identify himself.

Which of these Texas Legislators is Acutally a Closeted Gay?

This being Texas, Rep. Springer isn't the only Homophobic Hero in the Texas Legislature.  His Justice League of Homophobia has many members, all Republicans.  The 4 authors of the HB 1568 along with Rep. Springer are Jodie Laubenberg, Dennis Bonnen, John Smithee, and Linda Harper-Brown.

The coauthors of HB 1568 are Cecil Bell, Giovanni Capriglione, Brandon Creighton, Pat Fallon, James Frank, Bryan Hughes, Stephanie Klick, Matt Krause, John Kuempel, Jeff Leach, Charles Perry, Larry Phillips, Four Price, John Raney, Scott Sanford, Ron Simmons, Phil Stephenson, Jonathan Stickland, Ed Thompson, Steve Toth, Scott Turner, and James White.

Very disappointing that Reps. Turner and White, both African-American, are co-authors.  One minority going after another minority.  But being an anti-gay Republican trumps all concerns.

Back to the title of this post.  Including Rep. Springer, which of these legislators is actually gay?  If history is any guide, one of these legislators will actually turn out to have a big rainbow colored secret in his or her closet.  Legislators at the state and federal level who become known for anti-gay views and legislation have a way of falling out of that closet.

Homophobia in the Texas Legislature

Not exactly earth shattering news here in Texas, but homophobia is alive and well in the Texas Legislature.

One of the Homophobic Heroes this session is Rep. Drew Springer (R-Muenster).  As of right now, his only press release on his state web page is one touting his filing of HB 1568.  What is HB 1568?  According the the Legislature website it's a bill, "Relating to funding under the Foundation School Program for a school district that offers insurance benefits to a person who is not a dependent of a district employee."  In other words, we don't want gays giving their partners health insurance.  No doubt, if he could, he'd probably outlaw gays in general getting health insurance...or anything beneficial for that matter.

What bee got in Rep. Springer's bonnet?  That bee would be Pflugerville ISD and its health benefits for domestic partners.  From the Texas Tribune:

The board of trustees of Pflugerville ISD made history in December 2012 with a 5-1 vote, becoming the first school district in Texas to offer health benefits for domestic partners.

“I think the money we give to educate our kids should go to the kids and not trying to expand social benefits that we decided in 2005 was unconstitutional,” Springer said Thursday, referring to the Defense of Marriage Act of 2005, which defined marriage in the Texas Constitution as between one man and one woman. "We're not taking away all the funding, just the 7.5 percent that goes to the health benefit plan."

Here's the kicker though:

Opponents of Springer’s bill argue that it mischaracterizes the school's health plan policy. “No tax dollars are being used,” said Chuck Smith, president of Equality Texas, an LGBT lobbying group. Smith said that no money is taken from funding the classroom, but rather the policy “allows access to the benefit plan, but the employee still pays the premium.”

"It’s yet another legislative overreach, and it seeks to undermine local control,” Smith said of Springer's bill.

Just as an aside, Rep. Springer comes from that bustling metropolis of Muenster, TX.  Never heard of it?  That's understandable.  As of the 2010 Census it counted 1,544 people in its population.  Just as an FYI, the 2011-2012 enrollment figures for Pflugerville ISD listed 3 schools that had a larger student body than Muenster had people: Pflugerville HS, 2,293; Hendrickson HS, 2,291; John Connally HS, 2,008.  Another 3 schools had nearly the same student population as Muenster: Kelly Lane MS, 1,153; Pflugerville MS, 1,039; Dessau MS, 1,019.  Altogether Pflugerville ISD has 23,287 students.

This may seem like small town bashing and so be it.  There may be a time and place for small town values (like valuing mom & pop shops over Wal-Mart), but in this case Rep. Springer needs to take his small town values back to Muenster and keep them there and leave Pflugerville ISD alone.

To sum up, government intrusion and overreach is okay as long as 1) it tries to outlaw to abortion or 2) it goes after GLBT.

As an aside, just to state for the record, the Tribune listed 3 cities that have domestic partner benefits for their employees: Austin, El Paso, and Dallas.  Just like to also mention that San Antonio is one of those cities as well.