Add NFL Coach Dungy to anti-gay hall of shame...

Larry Kramer's column yesterday about straights hating gays has certainly led to a lot of discussion about people's attitudes toward us and it has really got me thinking: good grief, it's true! I know not all straight people hate gay people but Kramer makes a good case for believing it's more people than we ever thought.
In the past few months alone we've had to hear about such things as Gen. Peter Pace stating that he believes homosexuality is immoral and should not be condoned by the military, Tim "I hate gay people" Hardaway opens his big mouth, the hateful Ann Coulter opens hers, Garrison Keillor sticks his foot in his, and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama barely open theirs in reaction to Pace's infuriating comments.
And now you can add Indianapolis Colts' coach Tony Dungy to this quickly-growing anti-gay hall of shame. AfterElton.com reports that Dungy stuck to plans to appear Tuesday night at the anti-gay Indiana Family Institute's dinner where he was honored at an event that raised $70,000 for their homophobic activities.
At the dinner, Dungy said to the crowd of 700: "I appreciate the stance they're taking, and I embrace that stance. IFI is saying what the Lord says. You can take that and make your decision on which way you want to be. I'm on the Lord's side."
So what is that stance? IFI is against adding 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' into discrimination law, state on their web site that LGBT people are "trapped by Satan" in their "homosexual lifestyle," and that "30 percent of all 20-year-old homosexual men will be HIV positive or dead by the age of 30."
NFL spokesperson Greg Aiello previously told AfterElton.com that "I believe I have made it clear that we have no issue with this dinner." Neither Dungy, nor the Colt's front office would answer questions about Dungy's appearance in promotional materials for the dinner while in his Colt uniform.
Gee, is it any wonder that an active NFL player has never come out of the closet? It will take players of Brady Quinn's generation, who are generally not so stuck in this anti-gay way of thinking, to finally get everyone to relax and just let it be. Gay people, athletes, soldiers, politicians, journalists, actors and all the rest should not have to hide who they are just to make their professional dreams come true.
I'd love to stay in my Hollywood bubble where I have friends and co-workers who accept me for who I am and if they don't, I don't really notice. But reality keeps hitting me in the face as I read newspapers, articles online, watch the news or listen to NPR.
But what gives me hope, and a fighting spirit, is that the bigotry is being exposed and condemned - maybe not by everybody, but by enough people to make the Paces, Coulters and Hardaways wish they never opened their big mouths. And people with jobs like coach Dungy, who should be a role model to young athletes, outa think long and hard about how hypocritical it is to endorse such mean-spirited ideas and to then say you are "on the Lord's side."