Sean Avery has always been a lightning rod for controversy, ever since he first broke into the NHL with the Detroit Red Wings back in 2001. He's never been one to keep from running his mouth about something he feels, and naturally, it's tended to get him in trouble.
So, when Avery appeared in a public service announcement speaking out in favor of gay marriage in the state of New York, it must have been surprising for the Rangers wing to see himself praised by many members of GLBT rights organizations.�
On top of that, by releasing this public service announcement, in which Avery says he feels everyone should have the right to marry, the motor-mouthed wing has re-opened a touchy subject in the sports world: homophobia in sports.�
Can Avery's PSA help put an end to the discrimination and hate that still lurks in locker rooms around the country?
It's the dirty little secret that's not really a secret anymore: homophobia is still very much a part of sports. Why do you think there has never been an openly gay active player in any of the four major sports in the United States (hint: it's not because there are no gay athletes)?�
We've been down this road at least twice in the last couple of months prior to Avery; we saw it with Kobe Bryant muttering a homophobic slur at a referee earlier this season, and again with Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell's lewd and inappropriate comments and gestures directed at fans before Atlanta's game with the San Francisco Giants.�
In both cases, we saw the men in question refer to homosexuality in a derogatory or insulting manner, which, given the history of sports, should come as little surprise.�
After all, sports is about machoism, toughness, manliness (at least, among men's sports) and strength. Homosexuality has long been wrongly associated with femininity, weakness and inferiority. So, it stands to reason that using slurs that infer someone is inferior would be used almost constantly in locker rooms. To take that point even further, an athlete wouldn't fight for a cause full of weaklings, lest he be seen as one of them, right?
But, of course, Avery is different. A tough guy, a fighter, Avery is better known for being a brawler than a goal scorer at this point, breaking the mold of what many would picture as a GLBT ally. Yet, there he was, standing up for the rights of a community he's not a part of (the man has been linked to his fair share of blonde bombshells over the years?something tells me he's straight) because it's the right thing to do.�
Avery isn't the only athlete to try to put an end to the hate in the sports world. Jared Dudley, Grant Hill and Brandon Ayenbadejo have all filmed similar PSAs in an effort to help put an end to the hate towards the GLBT community, standing up for marriage rights in their local areas.
I don't care what your political leanings are on the issue of gay marriage, homophobic slurs directed towards another person serve one purpose and one purpose only: to belittle and denigrate for no reason whatsoever. There's nothing political about putting an end to the use of homophobic slurs, it's just common decency not to treat other human beings with such disrespect.�
I doubt that Avery's PSA, or the PSAs of Dudley, Hill and Ayenbadejo, will put an end to the homophobia we've seen from the sports world over the years. They won't single-handedly convince every athlete in the world not to use those slurs, and they won't erase the ingrained language of the locker room.�
But, they do help. By standing up for gay rights, Avery's video makes progress, and it makes using the slurs just a bit more unacceptable. As time goes on, more athletes will join him in taking a stand on the issue.
Hateful slurs like these have no place in sports, and hopefully Avery's video can help to bring an eventual end to their use in the sports world.�
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