Boxing champion and Filipino politician Manny Pacquiao issued the classic non-apology apology for calling gay people "worse than animals."
Pacquiao, 37 and a current member of the House of Representatives, apologized in social media. "I'm sorry for hurting people by comparing homosexuals to animals," he said in a Facebook video. "Please forgive me for those I've hurt."
In an Instagram post, he said he was not condemning anyone, but was just expounding on a biblical truth and would rather obey God than obey "the desires of the flesh."
He's not really sorry but was reacting to the criticism he was getting. Here are his full remarks when a TV network asked Senate candidates in the Philippines, including Pacquiao, about same-sex marriage:
"It's just common sense," Pacquiao said in the remarks posted online by the TV5 network. "Have you seen any animal having male-to-male or female-to-female relations?"Animals, he said, were better because they recognize gender differences, and "if you have male-to-male or female-to-female (relationships), then people are worse than animals."
Boxer Floyd Mayweather, who defeated Pacquiao last spring in a title fight, said this about same-sex marriage in response:"We should let people live their lives the way they want to live their lives. To each his own."
Any time someone apologizes just to those offended, it's a tip-off they don't really mean it. Pacquiao fits the bill, and he was reacting to an uproar he wasn't expecting.
