Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant's anti-gay slur to a referee at Tuesday night's game has caused a stir. Though Bryant has apologized, he's appealing the NBA's $100,000 fine.
Former gay NBA player John Amaechi responded to Bryant's slur in a New York Times NBA Blog post. He wrote:
"Kobe Bryant isn’t some great, bigoted monster, as some have implied, but he isn’t the innocent victim of some overblown one-off incident about a word that’s 'not even that bad,' either.
This controversy is not a storm in a teacup turned into a vendetta by loony liberals, as many in the sports world seem to think. What our heroes say and do means something — and in an America where sports stars carry more influence and in some cases more credibility than senators, what they say matters more than ever."
Blog
April 13, 2011 - 11:18am
Pat Skillen Receives Love Hero Award for LGBTQ Support & Advocacy
“I can’t change the world by waving a magic wand, but I do hope that I can change one person at a time by making them think about their values.”
—Pat Skillen
April 11, 2011 - 4:34pm
Some exciting announcements for Spring:
April 6, 2011 - 10:52am
An Interview with activist Alina Verhofskaya
March 31, 2011 - 6:12pm
"One of the reasons why I like NIOS Week is that it reminds staff and students that it’s OK to actively participate in what’s going on around you, and that you should be supported for standing up against something that isn’t right."
This week Gunn High School in Palo Alto, Calif. held its annual Not In Our School Week. Kristy Blackburn, English teacher and Not In Our School program coordinator, reflects on the first day of Gunn’s 2011 NIOS Week.