Tennys Sandgren is the latest self-proclaimed homophobe to realize just how accepting of the LGBT community America has become.
The tennis pro, who made it to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open last week, was caught in a firestorm of backlash when people discovered tweets from 2012 that Sandgren now says he didn’t mean.
It’s hard to see how he “didn’t mean” to say no one should have to even look at gay men, then use a pejorative for transgender people. For the record, here’s the tweet that he tried to bury by deleting:
He has since made some dramatic adjustments to his Twitter feed (I’m curious what else exactly he deleted), lashed out at the media, then posted this non-apology still saying going to a gay bar was a “bad experience”:
In regards to the gay club tweet from 2012, I used poor and harsh words to describe a bad experience, and is not indicative of how I feel about the people in that community. To everyone I offended with that, pls accept my apology
— Tennys Sandgren (@TennysSandgren) January 25, 2018
His tweet is standard anti-gay Christian double-speak: Love the sinner, hate the sin. It’s this thinking that devolves into the dangerous practice of conversion therapy and other damaging practices that lead LGBT people to incredible self-harm.
He offered a longer, rambling explanation on Saturday of his interactions with some far-right views, claiming now that he doesn’t hold to any of them (except the Christian ones). However, he did not offer any further comment on why a gay bar was such a bad experience, why he used a transgender slur, or why he says no one should have to look at gay men.
Sandren’s publicist must have finally gotten hold of him, because he apparently is headed home to Tennessee to “reflect” on all of this. No doubt he’ll figure out how to better nuance the “love the sinner, hate the sin” message… and dig an even deeper hole for himself.
