Medved backs Hardaway, says NBA 'love machines' wouldn't shower with gays or 'morbidly obese women'

[Doondoo]

A columnist known for his conservative stance on morals writes that former NBA star Tim Hardaway was right to some degree in his harsh dismissal of homosexuals, and says most basketball players wouldn't want gays showering with them any more than they would want "profoundly unattractive, morbidly obese women."

"Recent comments by retired basketball star Tim ('I hate gay people') Hardaway did serious damage to his image and career," writes Michael Medved at Townhall.com, "but also unwittingly raised serious cultural issues about sexuality and gender."

Medved argues that "many (if not most) Americans no doubt share instinctive reluctance to share showers and locker rooms with open homosexuals."

"That reluctance," he adds, "also explains the controversial Defense Department policy that prevents out-of-the-closet gays from serving in the United States military."

.......

The conservative columnist and show host stresses that "the substantive issue" is whether it is reasonable for an NBA player to feel discomfort "sharing intimate quarters with a homosexual, or does this represent an outrageous, irrational fear?"

Medved dismisses the comparison some sports columnists have made of the Hardaway controversy with racial segregation during the early years of professional sports. "The analogy is ridiculous, of course," he writes, before he validates the "much better analogy for discomfort at gay teammates" as being that of women and men sharing locker rooms.

"Making gay males unwelcome in the intimate circumstances of an NBA team makes just as much sense as making straight males unwelcome in the showers for a women's team at the WNBA," says Medved. "Most female athletes would prefer not to shower together with men not because they hate males (though some of them no doubt do), but because they hope to avoid the tension, distraction and complication that prove inevitable when issues of sexual attraction (and even arousal) intrude into the arena of competitive sports."



http://www.rawstory.com//news/2007/Conservative_columnist_suggests_homophobic_NBA_player_0221.html

[marmar]

1. Now there's a shock.....

Medved embracing hate. Next thing you know, Rush Limbaugh and Michael *Weiner" Savage will agree with him.
:think:

[Sherman A1]

2. Thanks for the link

Medved is coming up next in our Speaker Series her in St. Louis. This will make for a very nice question to pose for the Q&A...!!!!

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

3. LOL, one of the bloggers in the article says Medved is "Haggard-esque" in his focus on arousal in

the shower. :rofl: MKJ

[Smarmie Doofus]

6. Really. Far as I know, Hardaway didn't mention anything....

... about showers, lockers or 'intimate quarters' .


What is going on in Medved's mind?

[Arugula Latte]

12. I always think that guy is a self-hating closet case whenever I see him. nt

[MotorCityMan]

17. That was from the Rude Pundit

He always has an interesting take on things.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

23. Oh, Rude Pundit, excellent!

Thanks, a great reminder to hit the website more. :hi: MKJ

[TomClash]

4. Illogical

Millions of ordinary guys go to gyms across America every day and are at least partially nude in the locker room before and after their workouts. Some are probably gay. Most probably aren't. In my many years of gym exercise around the country and the world I've never seen or heard anyone complain about gay guys. No one has ever screamed, "there's a gay guy in my locker room! Run for the hills!"

Why should NBA players be any different?

[donheld]

5. share showers and locker rooms with open homosexuals.

I guess they prefer to shower with closeted homosexuals? :eyes:They can take they're pick it's either openly gay or closeted gay. There is no way anyone can shower in a public or communal setting and not expect to be ogled by someone.

[varun]

7. Where does this "Discomfort" end?

Next Medved will say "I dont want to be around gays because they undress me with their eyes".

(Medved can only hope that someone will find him attractive enough).

[Liberal In Texas]

8. Medved is an idiot. I call him Medvidiot.

And his movie reviews suck too.

[msongs]

9. difficult to believe anybody would think hardaway is sexy nt

[NMMNG]

10. Aye caramba!

"Making gay males unwelcome in the intimate circumstances of an NBA team makes just as much sense as making straight males unwelcome in the showers for a women's team at the WNBA," says Medved. "Most female athletes would prefer not to shower together with men not because they hate males (though some of them no doubt do), but because they hope to avoid the tension, distraction and complication that prove inevitable when issues of sexual attraction (and even arousal) intrude into the arena of competitive sports."


They love to assume that because a guy is gay he'll automatically be checking all of the naked men out and/or getting off over them. Such egos they have! :eyes:

[Marnieworld]

11. Big newsflash bigots

You already do shower with homosexuals. At the gym or in the professional sports locker rooms. You have for your entire life and you will as long as you keep showering and changing in any communal circumstances.

It is so ordinary and harmless that you can be this clueless as to be against what you have had all along.

What a bunch of morons!

[Uncle Roy]

20. "Do they think we have ourselves dry-cleaned?"

Barney Frank made this point during the so-called debate on gays in the military.

[Marnieworld]

21. OMG

LOL at my desk at work. That's hysterical.

These people are delusional that they think gay people are just some "others" who are "out there."

I am just dying for just one former teamate of Hardaway's to come out and show him that he did shower with homosexuals and somehow the world did not end.

[HardRocker05]

13. how does the WNBA deal w/ lesbians in the showers? bottom line is we can't and

*should not* control thoughts; you can't control when any person may be attracted to another. the only thing that matters and should be controlled is behavior; if a person, gay or straight makes unwanted advances to another person, in the shower or otherwise, they should stop when asked to. guys like medved and hardaway are just insecure about their "manhood", thus the obsession with gays.

[ShortnFiery]

14. What a morAn! :P n/t

[Unvanguard]

15. So "discomfort" justifies exclusion and discrimination?

:eyes:

Not to mention that this whole argument misses what Hardaway actually said - "I hate gay people."

[k_jerome]

16. that does it. medveds gay. nt.

[treestar]

18. He's getting himself mixed up

I thought the idea was that a freeper does not want to shower with those who might find him sexually attractive, thus equating gay men with women. (That the gay man would not think of them sexually never enters their little brains). That would include all women, not just the ones they find attractive. Because all women would be potentially finding them attractive (well, except lesbians).

[VelmaD]

19. I refuse to believe...

that NBA teams, with as much money as they rake in, would have communal showers in their locker rooms. We had individual shower stalls with curtains on my 8th grade girls' team. This seems like the biggest bullshit argument ever.

If I'm wrong and they do use communal showers...first, let me say...ick. And second, maybe the players should either get their union to demand better working conditions viv-a-vis the showers or pony up some of their own money to buy shower curtains for chrissake. Sheesh.

[SidDithers]

22. Most male showers are communal...

at least most of the ones that I've used with all the arenas and gyms that I've been to.

For most men, it's just not an issue.

Sid