Bryan D. Brown

I’m a very passive sports fan - I never felt overly attached to any team, nor does my day get ruined when the team I happen to be rooting for loses. This last football season, for example, I was really pulling for the Chargers to win the SuperBowl, but when they got knocked out of the playoffs by the Patriots, I wasn’t devastated. The SuperBowl, however, I always watch. This year was especially exciting as either team winning would guarantee, for the first time, that a black coach would be at the helm of the SuperBowl champs. It seemed, at least on the surface, a great tribute to the civil rights movement - even if it’s almost forty years later.

Of course, just when I think we’re making progress, there’s always something there to remind me just how far we have left to go. First, there’s the coach of the SuperBowl champs of the Indianapolis Colts, Tony Dungy. Dungy is scheduled to speak at Indiana Family Institute’s Friends of the Family Banquet.

From Bilerico.com

The [Indiana Family Institute] is one of the leading proponents of SJR7, the proposed Indiana Constitutional amendment on marriage rights, and other legislative efforts to deny equal rights to LGBT folks. Under the guise of protecting traditional family values, it helps spread misinformation that fosters bigitory [sic] toward our community and our own families.

Of course, given some of the tragedies that Tony Dungy has endured, namely the suicide of his son in 2005, I am certainly not one to question his faith. His faith, however, should not lead him to support organizations that are actively working against the rights of others.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, there is the Snickers debacle. During the SuperBowl, Snickers ran a fairly humorous advertisement:

Personally, I thought this commercial was pretty funny. One could make the case that this commercial is making fun of homophobia. Stripping half naked and ripping out chest hair is not “manly”, it’s stupid. Had Snickers left it that, then things might have been alright.

Unfortunately, Snickers couldn’t leave it at that. Because Snickers is owned by a corporation. And corporations have a tendency to do stupid things. All the time. As if they’re run by morons. Snickers decided to run an ad campaign around this commercial and included “alternate” endings. Those “alternate” endings included:

• the mechanics accidentally kissing and beating each other up
• the mechanics accidentally kissing and then drinking motor oil and anti-freeze
• homophobic reactions (parts one and two) from football players watching the commercial

There’s also an additional one, called the “Love Boat” ending, which is also funny, but also yielded the more homophobic remarks from the players.

Now, the outrage from the LGBT community has ended the ad campaign. Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew Shepard, issued a statement regarding the advertisements:

[It] encourages the same type of hate that led to the death of my son Matthew,” she said in a statement. “It essentially gives ‘permission’ to our society to verbally or physically harass individuals who are gay, lesbian or bisexual. In particular, I am dismayed that these players, who are role models to our young people, would participate in perpetuating such discrimination and prejudice.”

When the SuperBowl started, we were supposed to be celebrating the fact that 40 years ago, we never would have considered it possible for an African-American to coach a team to the SuperBowl. Instead, we’re simply reminded that, while we make progress in some areas, we still have a ways to go in others.