Via Variety:
ESPN has fired Curt Schilling over his recent anti-transgender comments on social media.
Schilling, a baseball analyst for ESPN and former Red Sox pitcher, posted a Facebook comment criticizing a transgender women.
“A man is a man no matter what they call themselves,” read Schilling’s comment, which he apparently posted in response to a photo about a recent North Carolina law that restricts transgender people’s access to bathrooms and locker rooms. “I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic.”
ESPN issued a statement on Tuesday, saying “ESPN is an inclusive company. Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated.”
A little honesty here would be nice. ESPN is most definitely not “an inclusive company” if it is firing a man for simply expressing an opinion that is almost certainly held by a majority of its viewers. The company has the right to fire any of its employees, but it’s weak and dishonest to pretend it is doing so from some moral high ground, especially if said company also employs Ray Lewis.
Schilling wasn’t vitriolic or threatening, he merely stated what he believed. In doing so, he failed a political litmus test at the increasingly liberal and politically active network. Once my favorite cable destination, ESPN’s newfound penchant for political posturing often makes the network unwatchable.
Schilling isn’t going quietly — he responded with a blog post titled “The hunt to be offended…”
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