Former NFL player Chris Kluwe, a straight man who has been a strong LGBT ally, is on the offensive again, this time calling out a team owner's "douchetastic buffoonery" in funding the effort to repeal the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.
Kluwe published an open letter to Houston Texans owner Bob McNair Wednesday on Sports Illustrated's Cauldron site, lambasting him for his $10,000 donation to the campaign to repeal the LGBT-inclusive ordinance.
Kluwe says he experienced some "puzzlement" when he read about the donation. "'Surely,' I said to myself, 'one of the NFL's thirty-two owners, businessmen with more accumulated wealth than most third world nations and completely vested in the well-being of the society that afforded them such success ... surely this man could not be a pants-on-head, cowhumping glue-huffer stupid enough to buy in on clearly outdated ideals of bigotry and intolerance?'" he writes.
But that was indeed the case, he continues, as he found that McNair had contributed "to a cause whose sole purpose is to denigrate a specific group of American citizens." McNair, Kluwe says, is part of a group of "privileged narcissists" who ignore the discrimination and harassment LGBT people experience.
"Kids killing themselves after being mercilessly bullied? Bob McNair just don't care!" Kluwe writes. "Trans individuals murdered at an obscenely high rate? Bob McNair just don't care! Transgender people being murdered, just because of who they are? Bob McNair just don't care! Basic human dignity? You get the gist."
Kluwe notes that the NFL has been trying to present a welcoming and inclusive image, then adds that McNair's "douchetastic buffoonery makes it all too clear that no matter what the NFL says, what the NFL actually does is enable hateful cowards in their Don Crapote quest to drag everyone else down into a wretched filth hole they think represents humanity."
He also points out the ridiculousness of a prominent argument by opponents of the ordinance -- they claim that allowing transgender people to use the public restrooms of their choice will result in attacks on women and children -- and notes that refraining from discrimination is good for business.
After using much extremely colorful language, Kluwe signs the letter "Someone Who Is Sick And Tired Of Watching Stupid Old White Men Ruin The World For Everyone Else Because They Can't Get Over The Fact That Everyone Deserves A Chance To Live Their Life."
The ordinance will go to a public vote November 3. The Houston City Council passed it last year, but after opponents sued to force a referendum on it, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the city must either repeal the measure or let residents vote on it.
Read Kluwe's full, no-holds-barred letter here.
