Tim Hardaway, the talk of the town. Self-professed homophobic. Team wrecker.

Real quick, on the actual situation of the fact that Tim Hardaway said anything at all, let alone what he said, I’m ambivalent. On the one hand, I think that much in our society is based on not-having tough discussions. I think it’s generally perceived to be better to say the “right things” in public and reveal your real opinion in private. You know, better to maintain the veneer of civility than to break in with the ugly truth. And really, I think that much of the flak Hardaway is catching is because he did just that. Granted, a lot has to do with the way he said what he said…a whooole lot, but that’s part of it too. In general, we’ve moved beyond the blatant insult to more “code word”-type slights. That’s why there was that whole brouhaha over the degree of insult intended when Senator Biden said Senator Obama was articulate. It’s generally a compliment, but depending on who says it and in what context, it could be perceived to be an insult. Unlike Tim Bug, who made his remarks as vicious and specific as possible. (All that I said last time about certain words not necessarily being homophobic? Not this time. It came out that way because he meant for it to come out that way.) Because actually, I’m thinking that if he had toned it down just a little, there would still be a backlash, but there would probably by now be a fairly sizable anti-backlash. Some from the “family values” crowd, and some from the “first-amendment” crowd. Both backlash, and anti-backlash, I think would be warranted. What’s more interesting to me, and of more concern, is his assertion that he couldn’t play with a gay teammate. That’s pretty much where I draw the line.

I don’t consider myself to be super-progressive, or even moderately progressive. Really, I don’t even fool with describing a political temperature anymore. Whatever somebody chooses to label me, I’ll be that. It doesn’t change what I think. So bearing that in mind, as I’ve said before, people should be free to do them. I have no problem with a person being gay. That’s him. I don’t believe there’s any scriptural justification for it, but I also don’t believe there’s any scriptural justification for fornication or any of a whole littany of other things. Some of the stuff on the list in Romans 1:29-31, I’m specifically on the hook for. Other stuff, not so much. I’m pretty sure I’ll have enough to answer for on my own without being pressed over what (or who) the next man is doing. Same thing goes with questions over whether being gay has social or biological stems. I haven’t seen enough evidence one way or the other to make me believe. It might be a naturally-occurring genetic variation, it might not be. It doesn’t really matter. Not when it comes down to interactions between people.

See, I think there was a time in my life when I thought like Tim Hardaway. It might’ve been when I was in high school. I was never the type who was gonna jump out and do anything to humiliate anybody, but I think that what he said the other day pretty much captures what I thought back then. But then, I had the good fortune of having that one math class in college. I should’ve known it was going to be significant. The professor’s name was Ralph Jenkins - and he was white. I was having a hard enough time recovering from that shock, when I got to my recitation section and found that the TA was gay. Not that gayness comes in degrees, but he was reeeeaaaalll gay. I think that was my first time really interacting with somebody who was openly gay. And the thing is, there’s no story to it; I didn’t have some big epiphanic moment when I realized anything. He was him and I was me. He helped me learn math. That was it. I had a 99 average in the class. Him being straight wouldn’t have changed that. And that was my gradual realization that it really doesn’t matter.

So when I hear Tim Hardaway say that he couldn’t be on the same team as a gay dude, that’s particularly bothersome. They don’t hafta be on the same team, they’re just teammates. Nobody’s even asking them to hang out together, get along well, or even like each other. Shoot, from the way we got the story, Shaq and Kobe couldn’t stand each other, but they played well together. When a beef over someone’s lifestyle (or genetic makeup, take your pick) limits your ability to do your job, then there’s a real problem. And it’s not the other person’s problem. Kinda like if somebody sees an ant colony on TV and starts feeling bugs crawling up his arm. That’s on you.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 17th, 2007 at 9:08 am and is filed under Everwhatever.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.