The BC Lions, a Canadian Football League team based in Vancouver, changed the color of the team's logo on its official Facebook page to rainbow to honor gay pride weekend in Vancouver:

Bclions_medium

It was a nice gesture, and seemingly harmless, but it brought out the haters:

  • I thought we roared, not meowed
  • Unacceptable!!! Not impressed!!!
  • So lets see if I have this right… someone doesn't agree with you so they automatically get labelled as " haters " ( even though they don't hate you, they just don't agree with you ) and " homophobic " which is a pretty ridiculous statement as a phobia is a debilitating fear that causes you to lose control of your faculties and thought processes. Excuse me if I find the thought of one man sticking his penis up another man "pooper " ( to put it politely ) repulsive. I does not mean that I am afraid that I'm going to become a homosexual if I end up being in the same room as them nor do I want to cause them ill will. So all you " ignorant heterophobic haters " ( see how dumb that sounds ) can stop crying foul just because there are people who don't agree with you and don't feel like we have to support you.
  • God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve
  • My sexual preference, religion and politics have NOTHING to do with the CFL and vice versa! Not impressed with this PR stunt.

If I wore a tee saying "Proud to be Straight" I would be ridiculed! Just saying think about it…..it's not politically correct.
You get the idea. Fortunately, a bulk of the commenters were supportive, with many saying the negative reaction shows the need for such a display by the Lions. The best rejoinder was this:

A general response to people asking why there needs to be "gay pride":
If you were born into a culture where being yourself, in this case, being gay, was considered abnormal/wrong one usually grows up ashamed of themselves. They are afraid to talk about their loved ones to coworkers, afraid to hold their partner' hand in public, afraid to be different.
Gay pride is a way to show not just others but yourself that you are worthy of love and you are proud to be who you are, again, in this case, gay.
Most straight people are not made fun of, beat up, harassed, and/or ostracized for their sexual orientation. Therefore, because the dominate culture inherently tells heterosexuals to be proud of their heterosexuality, there is no need to profess their "proudness" of their sexual orientation.
Until homosexuality becomes normalized in our hetero-normative society, there will be a need for gay pride for people to reaffirm their self worth.

The BC Lions did not back down and even included a link to a You Can Play video by one of their players, Marco Iannuzzi.

Don't forget to share: