Pansification

Since today is the largest sports day in the country (if not the entire world), we're going to pose a sports question to our readers. What do you get if you ban fighting from hockey?

"Pansification." At least that's according to Canadian sports commentator Mike Milbury, who came under fire this week from the Canadian LGBT rights organization Egale Canada, for using the term repeatedly during segments of Hockey Night on the Canadian Broadcasting Channel (CBC). Milbury has been a diehard opponent of efforts to ban fighting in hockey, and used the word "pansification" as a means of describing what he sees as an effort to make hockey less manly. Egale Canada labeled the term homophobic, and this blog agrees.

Homophobia in sports is nothing new, of course. Three years ago AfterElton called the "rough and tumble world of male sports" the last bastion of homophobia. We might also add the rough and tumble world of evangelical Christianity to that list, but clearly, professional sports remains a hotbed for homophobic language. Just this week, former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker (who nearly ten years ago drew outrage for saying he wouldn't ride a New York subway with some "queer with AIDS"), launched into an anti-gay and anti-semitic tirade at a hotel grand-opening, calling Atlanta radio host Steak Shapiro (among other things) a faggot.

And Dallas Cowboys tight-end Martellus Bennett was fined $22,000 for putting a rap up on You Tube that used derogatory terms against gay people, in one place rhyming Tony Romo (the Cowboys' quarterback) with homo. After his fine, Bennett issued a pseudo-apology, where he lashed out against the media for making a big deal out of his rap:

I wasn’t using guns, it was all in fun
I mean come on dog, it was just a song
The one crazy verse, it could have been worse
I mean I did curse, but I didn’t see a hearse.

According to Bennett, as long as he isn't killing anyone, no harm no foul. But as these examples illustrate, homophobic language still looms large in professional sports; and if the pros are using it, you can only imagine that it's trickling down to college, high school and middle school locker rooms, too. Campbell Webster has a column for the Guardian this week where he quotes a high school student who wrote down some of the various anti-gay comments he heard during two hours of school. The results?

"You’re a fag, man.”
“Cut your hair, faggot.”
“Shut up, faggot.”
“I’ll slit your f***ing throat, queer.”

According to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), nine out of ten LGBT teens report hearing language like this in their schools. Nearly five out of ten report being physically harassed, which is not all that surprising, as It's not too hard to draw a connection between hate language and violence.

We're not saying that the homophobic comments of Mike Milbury, John Rocker or Martellus Bennett will necessarily result in physical violence. But athletes and sports figures are certainly idolized figures, and the language they use matters in creating either a tolerant or an intolerant culture in sports. As Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins once said, "Athletes are increasingly separate from the rest of us--and we're all complicit in that fact. We identify them as stars as early as grade school, socialize them as privileged exceptions, pay them 25 times what the average person earns, and coach them to abdicate on social issues."

On this day, where sports take center stage with 90+ million people watching the Super Bowl, we should be of the mindset that there's no place for homophobia and homophobic language in sports.