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| Sorry Jay, but you best man up Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
Via @ringofhonor's TwitLonger
According to Ring of Honor, Jay Briscoe will offer an apology for his homophobic Twitter threat to shoot anyone who teaches tolerance to his children. He will also donate his next two paydays to Partners against Hate, a charity organization dedicated to preventing the spread of bigotry among America's youth. There's no word on when Briscoe's apology will be disseminated, but it surely won't be through his Twitter page, which he has deleted.
This seems like it's a step in the right direction of remediating the damage caused by Briscoe's offensive commentary. I don't know whether it's enough or not, and quite frankly, I'm not sure as a straight male, I can judge whether it's enough or not. The fact that something is being done seems to me to be a step in the right direction, regardless of how meager his paydays are, or how sincere his apology may or may not be. I don't know yet, because he hasn't issued it to the best of my knowledge.
Of course, there are people who will scream about the First Amendment, and how it's bullshit that Briscoe is being punished for speaking his mind. Forget that what he said technically could be construed as a terroristic threat which is illegal no matter how you slice it, yeah, Briscoe is allowed to state his distaste for homosexuality or teaching tolerance to his children. That's protected speech, of course. But here's the thing about protected speech; the only entity that you have protection from is the government. Yes, I've argued before about the "spirit" of said law and how it means that we as people should probably work to let people say what they want without intimidation, but in what part of the country is saying "GAY IS BAD" going to be intimidated? People talk about how the media "bullies" people who make homophobic remarks, but the sad truth is that there are still a buttload of people who think that being gay is awful and terrible. Oftentimes, they have the power of people in charge and laws on the books to back them up.
Even so, anyone backlashing against Briscoe is also protected under the same First Amendment. The text doesn't read "Congress shall make all the laws abridging the freedom of speech when it involves responding to someone exercising his or her right to free speech." It reads "Congress shall make no law... abridging freedom of speech," period. If Jay Briscoe says that he thinks gay marriage is an abomination, I'm allowed to tell him that I think he's full of shit. That's why this country's Founding Fathers were gangsta as shit.
Still, even if Briscoe never said a damn thing about shooting people, his attitudes are still hurtful because they reinforce the idea that you can only have rights if you're white, male, Christian, and straight that so many in the establishment have. Sure, he's not a stuffy lawmaker - in fact, he's quite the opposite - but he buys into that ideal. I don't think wrestling has ever been enterprise exclusively of that demographic, but now, more so than ever, it is becoming part and parcel of the entire country with everyone who makes up this pastiche of citizenry. When you're the babyface Champion of a company that is desperately trying to grow into something more than "biggest indie in the land," you can't be alienating a chunk of the fanbase. I hate to break it down into business sense, because it makes me feel so damn cheap to marginalize human beings into automatons with cash. But at the same time, maybe this is the only way that carnies such as Briscoe and the people who are in charge of him ROH's front office (including Cary Silkin, who is, you guessed it, gay) understand why bigotry is bad. It's totally not the ideal path, but maybe they can grow into thinking that hey, people are people no matter what their demographic makeup is, after they realize they're also paying customers.
All this episode, and the response to it, shows is that we, as I've mentioned a bunch of times this week, still have a goddamn long way to go before any problems are solved not only in wrestling, but in American society at large. The best thing I hope for out of this is that Briscoe learns something more than "maybe I'll keep my beliefs to myself." Because if he's just keeping them to himself? Guess what, he still believes them, which means he could very well act on them. Opinions are opinions, and we're all entitled to our own, but if there's one opinion that everyone should probably have, it's that people deserve rights no matter what their genetic makeup or personal life choices are as long as those choices don't impinge on anyone else's rights. We should all be decent to each other, regardless of anything, especially what orifices we like to press our bodies up against behind closed doors.
According to Ring of Honor, Jay Briscoe will offer an apology for his homophobic Twitter threat to shoot anyone who teaches tolerance to his children. He will also donate his next two paydays to Partners against Hate, a charity organization dedicated to preventing the spread of bigotry among America's youth. There's no word on when Briscoe's apology will be disseminated, but it surely won't be through his Twitter page, which he has deleted.
This seems like it's a step in the right direction of remediating the damage caused by Briscoe's offensive commentary. I don't know whether it's enough or not, and quite frankly, I'm not sure as a straight male, I can judge whether it's enough or not. The fact that something is being done seems to me to be a step in the right direction, regardless of how meager his paydays are, or how sincere his apology may or may not be. I don't know yet, because he hasn't issued it to the best of my knowledge.
Of course, there are people who will scream about the First Amendment, and how it's bullshit that Briscoe is being punished for speaking his mind. Forget that what he said technically could be construed as a terroristic threat which is illegal no matter how you slice it, yeah, Briscoe is allowed to state his distaste for homosexuality or teaching tolerance to his children. That's protected speech, of course. But here's the thing about protected speech; the only entity that you have protection from is the government. Yes, I've argued before about the "spirit" of said law and how it means that we as people should probably work to let people say what they want without intimidation, but in what part of the country is saying "GAY IS BAD" going to be intimidated? People talk about how the media "bullies" people who make homophobic remarks, but the sad truth is that there are still a buttload of people who think that being gay is awful and terrible. Oftentimes, they have the power of people in charge and laws on the books to back them up.
Even so, anyone backlashing against Briscoe is also protected under the same First Amendment. The text doesn't read "Congress shall make all the laws abridging the freedom of speech when it involves responding to someone exercising his or her right to free speech." It reads "Congress shall make no law... abridging freedom of speech," period. If Jay Briscoe says that he thinks gay marriage is an abomination, I'm allowed to tell him that I think he's full of shit. That's why this country's Founding Fathers were gangsta as shit.
Still, even if Briscoe never said a damn thing about shooting people, his attitudes are still hurtful because they reinforce the idea that you can only have rights if you're white, male, Christian, and straight that so many in the establishment have. Sure, he's not a stuffy lawmaker - in fact, he's quite the opposite - but he buys into that ideal. I don't think wrestling has ever been enterprise exclusively of that demographic, but now, more so than ever, it is becoming part and parcel of the entire country with everyone who makes up this pastiche of citizenry. When you're the babyface Champion of a company that is desperately trying to grow into something more than "biggest indie in the land," you can't be alienating a chunk of the fanbase. I hate to break it down into business sense, because it makes me feel so damn cheap to marginalize human beings into automatons with cash. But at the same time, maybe this is the only way that carnies such as Briscoe and the people who are in charge of him ROH's front office (including Cary Silkin, who is, you guessed it, gay) understand why bigotry is bad. It's totally not the ideal path, but maybe they can grow into thinking that hey, people are people no matter what their demographic makeup is, after they realize they're also paying customers.
All this episode, and the response to it, shows is that we, as I've mentioned a bunch of times this week, still have a goddamn long way to go before any problems are solved not only in wrestling, but in American society at large. The best thing I hope for out of this is that Briscoe learns something more than "maybe I'll keep my beliefs to myself." Because if he's just keeping them to himself? Guess what, he still believes them, which means he could very well act on them. Opinions are opinions, and we're all entitled to our own, but if there's one opinion that everyone should probably have, it's that people deserve rights no matter what their genetic makeup or personal life choices are as long as those choices don't impinge on anyone else's rights. We should all be decent to each other, regardless of anything, especially what orifices we like to press our bodies up against behind closed doors.