A full-time-turned-part-time Orange Countian blasted a former temporary Orange Countian over comments made about gays.
This probably would not warrant coverage were it not for the fact that both a professional athletes known for running their mouths (and Twitter fingers): Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe and former Angel/current Detroit Tiger Torii Hunter.
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It all started last weekend, when the Los Angeles Times ran a piece that quoted Hunter saying of having a gay teammate in the dugout, “For me, as a Christian … I will be uncomfortable because in all my
teachings and all my learning, biblically, it's not right. It
will be difficult and uncomfortable.”
Hunter, of course, was one of the most accessible, affable and intelligent team leaders during his beloved stint in Anaheim. He also caught shit at times for things that came out of his mouth, including remarks in a USA Today piece some characterized as the rantings of an angry black man.
Steve Physioc, ex-Angels Broadcaster, Defends Torii Hunter
More recently, after his depature from the Halos, Hunter tweeted that Angels owner Arte Moreno is essentially a liar.
In both of those instances, Hunter later backtracked and claimed he was misquoted or misunderstood, as he has done amid a media firestorm that broke out after anti-gay comments attributed to him by the Times' Kevin Baxter were published. Here's what Hunter tweeted Monday:
I'm very disappointed in Kevin Baxter's article in which my quotes and feelings have been misrepresented. He took two completely separate quotes and made them into one quote that does not express how I feel as a Christian or a human being. I have love and respect for all human beings regardless of race, color or sexual orientation. I am not perfect and try hard to live the best life I can and treat all people with respect. If you know me you know that I am not anti anything and to be portrayed as anti-gay in this article is hurtful and just not true
As Baxter stood by his story, claiming to have Hunter's comments on tape, the Weekly's Nov. 1 cover boy Kluwe piled on . . .
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Chris Kluwe's Game Changer: The Los Al High grad and Minnesota Vikings punter is prying open America's last closet: major-league sports
Kluwe tweeted the following:
Now prepping for Saturday night's wild-card matchup against the Green Bay Packers, Kluwe is, as our Voice sistah paper City Pages of Minneapolis-St. Paul put it, “the NFL's most aggressive straight ally, and a spokesman for the
campaign to a defeat a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.”
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.