As is usually the norm, there has been a great buzz going around about this year's Olympic games. But in 2008 there has been a lot of controversy over the fact that there will be a lot of athletes competing in this year’s games that are gay. This has caused quite a stir in the media and many cheer the "courage" to come out and let everyone know that they are gay. While others are out right hostile and angry about their positions.
However, one of the more recent developments is quite different and interesting. The American Family Association has a new policy this year and that being that using the word "gay" is not allowed in any form, but instead they are to use to word "homosexual" whenever this situation is referenced in any way.
If for some reason I even thought what the AFA was doing was a good idea, I would be able to see the fact that this could cause some real problems, just as it did for one athlete in particular. His name is Tyson Gay and he is a swimmer for the United States. Rather than explain to you what a problem this was for him, I will simply show you the following article titled "Homosexual Eases Into 100 Final at Olympic Trials":
Tyson Homosexual easily won his semifinal for the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials and seemed to save something for the final later Sunday.
His wind-aided 9.85 seconds was a fairly cut-and-dry performance compared to what happened a day earlier. On Saturday, Homosexual misjudged the finish in his opening heat and had to scramble to finish fourth, then in his quarterfinal a couple of hours later, ran 9.77 to break the American record that had stood since 1999.
One of the men who talked about challenging Homosexual in the 100, his former Arkansas teammate Wallace Spearmon, failed to make it to the final by the slimmest of margins. The top four runners advance from each semifinal, and Spearmon finished fifth in his-all of .001 behind Michael Rodgers.
Spearmon, twice a medalist at world championships in the 200, was last out of the blocks and managed to make up a lot of ground, but it wasn’t quite enough. “Aim to win. Got fifth. Feelings are hurt,” Spearmon said. “I’ll make the team in the 200. That’s about it.”
Homosexual didn’t get off to a particularly strong start in the first semifinal, but by the halfway mark he had established a comfortable lead. He slowed somewhat over the final 10 meters-nothing like the way-too-soon complete shutdown that almost cost him Saturday.
Asked how he felt, Homosexual said: “A little fatigued.”
When I read this the first time, I laughed out loud due to the sheer lunacy of the article. Can you picture what probably happened? Tyson Gay probably arose early the day after his world record swim in excitement to catch the morning paper and rather than giving himself a well deserved pat on the back, he merely drops his head in disappointment when he sees the title of the article "Homosexual Eases Into 100 Final at Olympic Trials.”
As if this guy didn't get made fun of enough by his friends growing up due to his last name, someone then has to go and publish an article like this. This is such a statement of where we are today as a culture. Rather than being rational about something as simple as this should have been, we want to change it just in case we offend someone. But our society never deals rationally. Why would we expect them to ever do anything else?
I simply do not understand why it is no longer acceptable to call someone “gay.” The people ARE gay! What is the big deal? Those in that lifestyle are the ones forcefully promoting their sexual preference with such pride. Why is this even an issue?
Personally, I would not take issue with almost any name that someone could come up with to describe my being a heterosexual. I am so incredibly comfortable with my sexual preference that even if someone came up with a name and intended it as derogatory based on my sexual preference, I would wear that name with pride. But apparently those who are gay feel differently.
Wherever Tyson Gay is, I hope his friends are not giving him too hard of a time over this. He is the victim of some weird circumstances. I wish him the best throughout the rest of the Olympics. Hopefully he will do well enough to make the papers again, and on the following day arise merely to see the name “Gay.” I’m sure he will wear that name with pride, but as we have seen, he will probably be the only one.
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