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Thursday, October 25, 2012

Good Intentions, Bad Results

For an NFL player who barely ever takes the field compared to most of his teammates, Chris Kluwe loves to be a lightning rod of controversy with his outspoken social and political views.  Gay marriage is at the heart of his favorite things to talk about, and his latest comments on the subject have spawned more debate.  Kluwe has already called out other players in the league - former teammates and otherwise - who have disagreed with his support for gay marriage.  Now he's taking things in a new direction, comparing the first openly gay athlete to that of Jackie Robinson.

Kluwe seems genuinely excited about the prospect for whenever it happens.  I believe he's sincere in his views, and he's not talking about it just to get his own name in print.  I have no doubt that he'd welcome a gay athlete with open arms and be proud to call him his teammate.

But there's something I find deeply troubling about his comments.  He said that major corporations such as Nike and Gatorade would jump at the chance to bring a gay athlete into endorsing their products.  It'd be the greatest marketing opportunity in 50 years, according to Kluwe.

Here's my problem: How is that not exploiting the athlete for major brands to make money?  How could a company tastefully and respectfully endorse an athlete for coming out of the closet without offending the athlete and the gay community as a whole?  Companies like Nike and Gatorade use athletes for their own needs in order to make money, and that's the way the system has been for generations.  The system is only going to be more and more money-driven as companies devise new ways to market themselves and their endorsements.

Isn't this potentially offensive to the gay community?  Sure, a gay athlete could be seen as inspirational to younger homosexuals across the country.  Such an athlete could travel around the nation to speak to young people about his experiences in life and what motivated him to come out of the closet.  But to allow companies the opportunity to make money off such a person seems pretty exploitative and demeaning towards the athlete in question to me.

Moreover, why should a big deal be made about such an athlete anyway?  If our society is as progressive as Kluwe thinks it should be, then if or when an athlete declares he is gay, then everyone would say, "Okay, so what?"  It shouldn't matter if someone was gay or straight anymore than whether he was black or white.  And it certainly isn't something designed for a major corporation to make money off.

Like I said before, I realize that Kluwe's comments weren't meant to imply that an athlete should be exploited or taken advantage of by a major corporation.  But the consequences from having a company like Nike bring on a gay athlete to endorse its products can't be avoided.  When the day finally does come where an athlete does come out of the closet, nobody should try making money off him.  We all should just go back to business as usual.

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