A gay rights group who highlighted Nigeria's poor record on LGBT rights has said it is disappointed that the country did not win the right to hold the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

In August Davis Mac-Iyalla, founder and leader of the gay Christian group, Changing Attitude Nigeria, met with the chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) in London to put their case.

They presented the CGF with an 11-page report setting out why it should reject the bid by the Nigerian city of Abuja.

The CGF announced that Glasgow will host the Games.

"Like most Nigerians we would have loved such an important international sporting occasion to come to our country," the group said in a statement.

"Some people may be tempted to accuse us of hypocrisy, as it was CAN that issued a damning report about Abuja's bid, almost as if determined to undermine Nigeria's chance of hosting the games.

By Dan Woog

The U.S. sports industry is twice as big as the American automobile industry, and 10 times larger than the movie industry.

Clearly, size matters.

Those figures come from Ted Rybka, and he should know. Since mid-September, he's served as director of sports media for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). For 20 years that organization has advocated for fair, accurate, and inclusive representation of GLBT people and events in the media. But until very recently - the day Rybka was hired, in fact - GLAAD was not much different from mainstream America: It pretty much ignored the connection between sports and sexuality.

They are strongly enmeshed, of course. "The sports media has a huge impact on how Americans live and interact," Rybka says. "It's crucial to how we perceive ourselves and others. With 24-hour channels, talk radio, and the Internet, sports is everywhere."

RICHMOND, Virginia (AFP) — National Football League superstar Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison here on Monday for his role in a dogfighting ring.

US District Judge Henry Hudson imposed the sentence, which was harsher than the 12-18 months recommended by prosecutors under the agreement they reached when Vick pleaded guilty to conspiracy to operate a dogfighting enterprise across state lines.

The federal charge had carried a maximum of five years.

Vick, 27, surrendered to authorities on November 19 and was already in jail. The one-time darling of NFL fans and sports marketers has been indefinitely suspended by the NFL.

Wearing a black and white prison jumpsuit, Vick showed little emotion as Hudson pronounced the sentence, which also includes three years' probation.

"You need to apologize to the millions of young people who looked up to you," Hudson admonished Vick, who responed, "Yes, sir."

Vick admitted that he used poor judgment and said he was prepared to make amends.

"I'm willing to deal with the consequences and accept responsibility for my actions," he said. "I would like to apologise to the court, to my family, to my kids, for what I have done."

Jackie Walker's brother is on a mission to see that the Vol linebacking great is remembered

October 16, 1971 Legion Field Birmingham, Alabama It was the third Saturday in October, and the Tennessee Volunteers came rolling into town on a four-game winning streak over Alabama's Crimson Tide. Bear Bryant awaited, intent on reversing his fortunes with a new wishbone offense, a retooled team, and a plan so brutally simple that it could be summed up in three words:

Stop Jackie Walker.

The Tide was gunning for Tennessee's senior captain, an outside linebacker whose fearless play had gotten him named an All-American as a junior, despite his slender physique. As a sophomore-freshmen didn't play varsity in those days-Walker and his teammates Lester McClain and Andy Bennett had become the first blacks to play against Alabama on Legion Field, and Walker had returned a bobbled pass for a touchdown. He'd pretty much owned the Tide in the teams' last two meetings, but this game, he would receive the full attention of Alabama's massive offensive line, which was anchored by 265-pound guard John Hannah, who later became a 10-time Pro Bowler in the National Football League and was named "Best Offensive Lineman of All Time" by Sports Illustrated.

Tennessee junior linebacker Jamie Rotella was an eyewitness to the mayhem, and the memory of Walker's valiant, hopeless battle in the 32-15 loss still burns bright.

"Jackie literally knocked himself out trying to stop Alabama's offense," he says. "He bore the brunt of their attack, and they kept coming after him…. I'm telling you, Jackie took them all on. We didn't really care about concussions then, but he probably had one and continued playing. I was shocked. I couldn't believe Jackie was wearing down, because every game up to this, he'd been Superman. And every game after this, he was Superman."

By Jack M.

In a recent appearance on the HBO series Costas Now, Colts coach Tony Dungy showed his true colors.

Dungy, a devout Christian, was initially asked if he'd have a problem with having a Muslim, Jew, or atheist on his team.
 

Dungy immediately answered no. He doesn’t proselytize to his players, he said.

Costas followed up with the same question about an openly gay player.

And Dungy paused.

He actually paused and crossed his arms—in obvious discomfort—before responding with canned blather about letting the player know what he thinks, and what the Bible says.

Dungy also said that if the player were good he'd have no problem with it.

But if that's the case—why the pause? Why the discomfort?

I’m not gay. I’m a straight white male—and I’m completely and utterly offended that Dungy paused to a question to which any sane, intelligent person would reply, “I have no problem with it at all.”

By Andy Ivens

Vancouver will be quite gay in the summer of 2011 if civic leaders stumping for the North America Continental Outgames and Human Rights Conference have their way.

Some 3,500 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered athletes and up to 2,500 delegates to the conference could attend, Vancouver Pride Society president John Boychuk said yesterday.

The 10 days of events "would come to a conclusion the week before Pride Week," which is in August, said Boychuk. "It would put the city in a long, gay spell. We did have the Gay Games here in the '90s. Since then, the gay and lesbian sporting world has made leaps and bounds."

Boychuk said a wide variety of sports were being considered for the Outgames.
He expects Vancouver to mount a winning bid, which must be submitted by August 2008. The host city will be decided in 2009.

"We have a beautiful city [with] a compact gay and lesbian community," he said.
"You get into the West End and it has a great feeling of community, and you can go out to Commercial Drive and get a feeling that there's a gay and lesbian community. You see people walking down the street hand-in-hand, where you don't necessarily see that in other large cities.

"Apparently, we're the first [city] to be considered for 2011."

He said teams in the athletic competitions would represent various cities around North America.

The human-rights conference would draw delegations from around the world.

Source link

Four people have been arrested over the murder of NFL star Sean Taylor, who died on Tuesday after being shot by intruders in his Florida home.
Miami police say they have more than one confession from the group - all males aged between 17 and 20 years old.

Detectives say Mr Taylor, a defensive player for the Washington Redskins, was killed in what appeared to have been a robbery which went wrong.

Mr Taylor, aged 24, was shot in the groin, severing his femoral artery.

Police arrested Eric Rivera, 17, Charles Wardlow, 18, Jason Mitchell, 19, and Venjahk Hunte, 20, in south-west Florida, about 160km (100 miles) from Miami.

Police Director Robert Parker said detectives are confident that the case against the four arrested was strong.

"We do have more than one confession," he said. "We're pretty certain we do have the gun."

By Phil Taylor

Once again, an athlete is gone too soon, the victim of another senseless killing -- as if there is any other kind -- and it does not make you a cold-hearted person if a touch of suspicion is mixed with your sympathy.

We know very little so far about the motivation for the break-in that ended with the fatal shooting of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor, but it is not blaming the victim to note Taylor had a history of keeping company with characters he probably didn't meet in Bible study. That may have had nothing to do with the tragedy that occurred Sunday night at his house, but the lesson for athletes -- for all of us, really -- remains the same: The reputation you build, the choices you make about your actions and associations, can follow you forever, even to the grave.

Before we go any further, this is not about race. Given Taylor's past, the same questions about his death would be asked if he had not been African-American, or if this had happened to a white sports figure with a similarly checkered history, like Pete Rose or Tim Donaghy, whose involvement with gamblers will forever taint our perception of them. It is only natural to wonder if the way Taylor lived had anything to do with the way he died.

But it is true that a troubling number of black athletes have been the victims of violent crime of late, a subset of the larger epidemic of young black men who die every day the same way Sean Taylor did, but whose names never make the headlines. While we wonder and wait for answers about Taylor's death, that issue is worth pondering as well. Why is it that black athletes seem to be such targets?

AMHERST — A University of Moncton professor says a conspiracy of silence is preventing gay professional athletes from coming out of the closet because they remain fearful of the repercussions.

Roger LeBlanc says that is likely to continue until society accepts the fact that gay athletes exist in what's perceived as the last bastion of masculinity _ professional sports.

LeBlanc, who conducted a study on gay rugby players in New Zealand nearly a decade ago, says the results are applicable to Canada's favourite sport, hockey.

He says statistics would suggest that of the approximately 900 players in the NHL at least 10 per cent could be gay, yet none have publicly said so for fear it could spell the end of their career.

Gay athletes, he says, have and need the right to be protected while an environment has to be created where all individuals can be productive and creative.

Source link

Former Washington State player Harris went missing earlier this month

SAO PAULO, Brazil - The body of a former Washington State University basketball star was found in a dense thicket in central Brazil, police said on Monday, two weeks after he was reported missing.

Police spokesman Norton Luiz said by telephone that police found the body of Tony Harris on Sunday after an anonymous tip. He was playing for Universo, a professional team based in Brasilia, the country’s capital.

The body was “slumped against a tree in an Army training ground and with the shoelace of one of his sneakers wrapped around his neck,” Luiz said. “We believe he may have committed suicide because it appears the body fell from one of the tree’s branches, although we are not ruling out homicide.”

He said that the state of the body indicates that Harris died about five days before he was found near the small town of Formosa.

By: Rahul Kale
Photo: Kevin Hwang

Although John Amaechi spent five seasons in the National Basketball Association, teaming with star players such as Karl Malone, John Stockton and Tracy McGrady, sports was not the focus of his speech Wednesday night.

Amaechi, who in February became the first NBA player to publicly announce his homosexuality, spoke to approximately 150 people in Page Auditorium on a range of topics including his life experiences and his views on homophobia in America.

He began by recounting his teenage years and his decision to travel from England to America to play basketball. Amaechi said he always wanted to attend Duke, but did not make the team and played for Vanderbilt University instead before eventually transferring to Pennsylvania State University. He said he was attracted to basketball at the age of 17 because it gave him the means to be normal.

"I was the fat little kid who hid in the corner and tried to be invisible," Amaechi said. "Basketball for me was this amazing opportunity to be normal, to be around people my own size and to inspire people."

Amaechi first entered the NBA in 1995 with the Cleveland Cavaliers, before playing in Europe. In 1999 he came back to America playing for the Orlando Magic. He retired in 2003 from the Utah Jazz.

By Cyd Zeigler Jr.

Chances are, unless you're a Big Ten fan or follow college basketball very closely, you've never heard of Zach Puchtel. So, it might surprise you to know that, according to a Minnesota sports blog, the former basketball standout for the University of Minnesota came out of the closet months ago. Gopherhole.com today published a lengthy interview with Puchtel in which he talks about his sexuality to the press for the first time.

According to the interview and a short entry on a Harvard blog, last spring Puchtel stopped a fashion show called Eleganza and announced that he is gay.

"It was a spectacle because it was on stage, in front of about 3000 people," Puchtel told Gopherhole. "I stopped the show, walked to the front of the stage, and made my announcement that I was gay."

What's surprising is that so few people picked up on it, and it never got any traction in the press. While John Amaechi had come out, a former Big Ten player of the week coming out is, indeed, news; other than Amaechi, to the best of Outsports' knowledge, Puchtel is only the second Div. 1 male college basketball player ever to come out in the press.
 

For the record, Puchtel does not consider himself gay or straight. As he said in his blog, The Search:

"I am sexually attracted to men and women, and I enjoy being with women in intimate relationships. I think human beings are beautiful, and I try not to differentiate due to sex, race or any other minute detail. We are all humans, we are more than 99.9% similar in every way, and we all share this life together."

He apologizes for reference to 'Brokeback Mountain' in describing poor defense. The comments had earned him criticism from gay and lesbian group.

By Mike Bresnahan

HOUSTON -- Coach Phil Jackson was reprimanded by the NBA, but not fined, and criticized by a national gay and lesbian group because of an off-color remark he made Tuesday night after the Lakers lost to San Antonio.

Jackson was trying to explain how the Lakers' defense kept allowing Spurs players to penetrate the lane and kick the ball out to teammates on the perimeter for open shots. The Spurs made an exemplary 13 of 27 shots from three-point range in their 107-92 victory.

We call this a 'Brokeback Mountain' game because there's so much penetration and kick-outs," Jackson said. "It was one of those games."

The Oscar-winning movie portrayed two cowboys who hid a homosexual affair.

"The remarks are in poor taste, and the Lakers have assured us such remarks will not occur in the future," NBA spokesman Brian McIntyre said.

Jackson also drew a rebuke in a statement issued by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

"Phil Jackson's been coaching long enough that he should be able to talk about the Lakers' performance without resorting to cheap gay jokes," the group said in the statement.

Jackson apologized, in his own way.

"It's poor humor," Jackson said. "I deserve to be reprimanded by the NBA. If I've offended any horses, Texans, cowboys or gays, I apologize."

The West Coast Classic III will be held over the MLK weekend, January 19-20, 2008, the National Gay Basketball Association announced. Highlights of the tournament will include 20 teams from across the US and Europe competing in 3 men’s divisions A, B and 35 plus and a women’s division.

The Memphis River City Champions, Spin-Freeze “A” and DC Sentinels “B”, and the host of last summer’s European tournament, the London Cruisers, insure that this tournament will single out the leading contenders for the Coady Roundball Classic NGBA Championships, to be held in Chicago in April of 2008.

The site of the tournament will be in downtown Los Angeles at a brand new facility with 4 full-length courts. Games will run from 9 am to 5 pm on Saturday and 9 am to 4 pm on Sunday. The weekend will also feature a full slate of supporting activities highlighted by an awards presentation. Teams can reserve a slot by visiting www.ngba.us and filling out the team registration form. Individuals can also register to be placed on a team by visiting the website.

Registration is now open at www.ngba.us

A gay rights group who highlighted Nigeria's poor record on LGBT rights has said it is disappointed that the country did not win the right to hold the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

In August Davis Mac-Iyalla, founder and leader of the gay Christian group, Changing Attitude Nigeria, met with the chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) in London to put their case.

They presented the CGF with an 11-page report setting out why it should reject the bid by the Nigerian city of Abuja.

Last week it was announced that Glasgow will host the Games.

"Like most Nigerians we would have loved such an important international sporting occasion to come to our country," the group said in a statement.

"Some people may be tempted to accuse us of hypocrisy, as it was CAN that issued a damning report about Abuja's bid, almost as if determined to undermine Nigeria's chance of hosting the games.

"In fact, our disappointment is that the Nigerian government failed to respond to the issues we raised in time for the bidding process.

Glasgow wins bid to host 2014 Commonwealth Games

Glasgow convincingly clinched the 2014 Commonwealth Games, shattering Nigeria's hopes of being the first African nation to host the event.

Scotland's biggest city won by 47 votes to 24 for its only rival, Abuja, at the Commonwealth Games Federation annual assembly in Sri Lanka, president Mike Fennell announced.

The result means Scotland will stage its first Commonwealth Games since Edinburgh played host in 1986.

It came down to only Glasgow and Abuja after the Canadian city of Halifax withdrew from the bidding process earlier this year.

Abuja's delegation had been confident its city would become the first in Africa to host the Commonwealth Games, which began in 1930 and are held every four years.

"A vote for Abuja means a vote for whole of Africa," appealed Nobel prize winner Bishop Desmond Tutu to delegates during the final video presentation to delegates before voting began.

Nigeria had hoped to host the 2014 Games as part of its centenary independence celebrations.

"I hope that Abuja will consider renewing their candidature for the 2018 Games as it is important that the hosting of the Games involves all regions of the Commonwealth and we hope that we will see them in Africa in the not too distant future," Fennell said.

According to Ragland's account, some UK players in the early 1960s became involved with two gay men who had moved to Lexington around 1959. The two men were luring players to their Lakewood Drive residence with offers of free food, alcohol and parties even before Bradshaw became coach, the book says. Eventually, according to Ragland, some players submitted to gay oral sex in exchange for money, receiving $200 or more for each act. At some point, Ragland writes, movie star Rock Hudson became involved through his friendship with one of the party hosts. (Hudson died of complications from AIDS in 1985.)

By Jim Warren

Some former University of Kentucky football players and the onetime wife of a former UK head football coach dispute a new book's contention that unnamed UK players "fixed" a football game 45 years ago.

Louisville author Shannon Ragland cites the UK-Xavier University game, played at Lexington's old Stoll Field on Nov. 17, 1962, flatly stating in his book that "the fix was in."

Ragland contends that the UK player or players involved only intended to ensure that Kentucky would fail to cover the 21-point betting spread -- which would have allowed gamblers to make a windfall -- but that the plan backfired and heavily favored Kentucky lost 14-9.

"It is known the game was fixed," Ragland writes. "Who fixed it? It will never be known and it's not important to know."

University of Bath

In his study of homosexuality among sportsmen in the US, sociologist Dr Eric Anderson found that 19 in a sample of 47 had taken part in acts intended to sexually arouse other men, ranging from kissing to mutual masturbation and oral sex.

The 47 men, aged 18-23, were all American Football players who previously played at the high school (secondary school) level but had failed to be picked for their university's team and were now cheerleaders instead. They were at various universities from the American south, Mid-West, west and north west.

by Dan Woog

“We’re here. We’re queer. We’re gay student-athletes, and also people of color.”

OK, so that’s not the jazziest sports slogan since “Just do it.” But it’s reality for more folks than anyone in either the gay or black community realizes.

Lea Robinson’s mission is to bring young gay athletes of color out of the closet and into what she hopes will be a better, more comfortable place for everyone.

The pressures on African-American LGBT athletes are immense, and no one has felt them more strongly than Robinson. A basketball player at Western Kentucky University from 1990 to 1994, she spent the next 12 years coaching Divisions I and III women’s hoops. She had few lesbian role models of any race, and struggled as a player and coach with both homophobia and racism.

They are known the world over as the Harlem Globetrotters.

But until Tuesday, it had been nearly 20 years since they actually had played a game in the neighborhood. And it was only the third time ever that the international ambassadors of basketball had laced up their tennis shoes for a game in Harlem.

“We could not think of a better place for the Globetrotters to start our new season than before thousands of Harlem school kids at the 369th Harlem Armory,” Globetrotters chief executive officer Kurt Schneider said of the game in front of grammar and middle-school students. “We came here because we view Harlem as the spiritual touchstone of the Globetrotter heritage.”