NHL fans break from playoffs to discuss gay marriage—because, apparently, it’s still 2006
Normally, “Canadian athlete supports existing Canadian law” wouldn’t be a big story—but the fact that New York Rangers forward Sean Avery (born in North York) supports equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians not only in Canada, but also in New York (cue Canadian smugness over progressive values), changes everything. All of a sudden, we have a case of “famous person makes political statement” on our hands. Throw in that Todd Reynolds, the vice-president of Burlington-based Uptown Sports Management, decided to weigh in on Twitter last night with his own brand of idiotic bigotry, and the story proved too juicy to let it pass us by.
Apparently, Reynolds decided to take to the social media airwaves (on his company’s official Twitter account, no less) to lament what he termed Avery’s “misguided” support of gay marriage after the always-controversial hockey player appeared in a Human Rights Campaign ad last week. In just three tweets in as many hours, Reynolds insulted and enraged a whole lot of people who had no idea who he was 24 hours ago.
If Jerry Springer has taught us anything, it’s that by the time someone resorts to “Let me clarify, I’m not a bigot,” the discussion is usually over. Of course, it’s not as if injecting conservative politics into American sports is totally unheard of—but Reynolds’ ignorant remarks caused more than a minor eruption yesterday. His uptownhockey handle hasn’t been updated since, so hopefully, if nothing else, Reynolds is spending some solid time in the corner pondering whether or not it’s true that there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
On another note, we’re also more than a little impressed that somebody actually managed to make Avery look dignified and respectable by comparison. As one observer put it: “Rule of thumb: When you’re going up against Sean Avery and *he* has the moral high ground, you’ve really screwed up.”
• NHL agent: Avery ‘misguided’ on gay marriage [National Post]
• On free speech, Uptown Sports, and Sean Avery [The Score]
• Uptown Sports agency opposes Sean Avery’s support of marriage equality [NBC Sports]
• Real World, Twitterverse and Sports Collide On Subject of Gay Marriage [Aerys Sports]
 supports equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians not only in Canada, but also in New York (cue Canadian smugness over progressive values), changes everything. All of a sudden, we have a case of “famous person makes political statement” on our hands. Throw in that Todd Reynolds, the vice-president of Burlington-based Uptown Sports Management, decided to weigh in on Twitter last night with his own brand of idiotic bigotry, and the story proved too juicy to let it pass us by.
Apparently, Reynolds decided to take to the social media airwaves (on his company’s official Twitter account, no less) to lament what he termed Avery’s “misguided” support of gay marriage after the always-controversial hockey player appeared in a Human Rights Campaign ad last week. In just three tweets in as many hours, Reynolds insulted and enraged a whole lot of people who had no idea who he was 24 hours ago.
If Jerry Springer has taught us anything, it’s that by the time someone resorts to “Let me clarify, I’m not a bigot,” the discussion is usually over. Of course, it’s not as if injecting conservative politics into American sports is totally unheard of—but Reynolds' ignorant remarks caused more than a minor eruption yesterday. His uptownhockey handle hasn’t been updated since, so hopefully, if nothing else, Reynolds is spending some solid time in the corner pondering whether or not it’s true that there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
On another note, we’re also more than a little impressed that somebody actually managed to make Avery look dignified and respectable by comparison. As one observer put it: “Rule of thumb: When you're going up against Sean Avery and *he* has the moral high ground, you've really screwed up.”
• NHL agent: Avery ‘misguided’ on gay marriage [National Post]
• On free speech, Uptown Sports, and Sean Avery [The Score]
• Uptown Sports agency opposes Sean Avery’s support of marriage equality [NBC Sports]
• Real World, Twitterverse and Sports Collide On Subject of Gay Marriage [Aerys Sports]){kind=link}
Can’t wait for Don Cherry to comment on this
It’s perverse not progressive ….
Hello world!
the rationale of people like Mr. Reynolds always amazes me. In this day and age…WOW.