The NCAA Promotes Anti-Gay Focus on the Family

by Michael Jones · 2010-02-23 06:13:00 UTC
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NCAA UPDATE: A Spokesperson for the NCAA has announced that they have pulled the Focus on the Family ads from the NCAA Web site, after receiving numerous complaints from folks. Great effort, folks! Read an updated post on Change.org here.

Why would the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) want to send a message that gay people are immoral, that same-sex marriage is a threat to civilization, and that gay and lesbian parents shouldn't be allowed to adopt children?

Maybe that's not the message they want to send, but it's certainly the message they are sending by accepting advertisements from Focus on the Family. Yes, you might remember Focus on the Family from their Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad days. They're back, and though they still haven't changed their anti-gay ways, their advertisements are still be accepted by organizations and companies that should know better.

You can send a letter here to the NCAA's Associate Director of Media and Public Relations, urging that the NCAA stop accepting ads from Focus.

Ironically, the ads being run on the NCAA's Web site come with the tagline, "All I want for my son is for him to grow up knowing how to do the right thing." For Focus on the Family, that "right thing" is spending millions of dollars to take away the rights of gays and lesbians to marry, to spend millions of dollars fight the rights of gay and lesbians parents to adopt, and by getting on radio stations daily and sending the message that gay marriage is a threat to civilization, or that LGBT people are immoral.

Tell the NCAA this is not the message they should be peddling in their advertising.

Even worse, as a few folks like Pat Griffin are reporting, the NCAA has agreed to accept Focus on the Family advertisements in partnership with CBS (the network strikes again!), which could air during the telecast of the NCAA's "March Madness" next month. That's the NCAA college basketball tournament, and just like the Super Bowl, one of the most watched sports programs of the year.

As Dana Rudolph at Mombian writes, there's something deeper here than just stopping an organization from advertising.

"It’s true we shouldn’t stop an organization from advertising simply because we disagree with it. Focus on the Family, however, has beliefs and goals that are in direct contradiction to the principles of the NCAA and many of its member organizations," Rudolph writes.

Among those beliefs and goals held by the NCAA? "The Association shall promote an atmosphere of respect for and sensitivity to the dignity of every person."

That should include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, too. And that's something that Focus on the Family, with its belief that homosexuality "violates God’s intentional design for gender and sexuality," does not hold up.

Urge the NCAA to reject these ads. They sent a divisive message to LGBT athletes and LGBT Americans that when it comes to college athletics, it's okay to praise an anti-gay culture. And that's just not acceptable.

Photo credit: SD Dirk

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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