I would like to take a moment to follow up on some previous
ideas. Two weeks ago I wrote a column for the sports section talking about the
lack of an intense baseball rivalry between SoCal and NorCal fans. I had gone
to a Padres-Dodgers game wearing San Francisco Giants’ gear and cheering my
lungs out for my boys in orange and black, yet didn’t really get heckled or
yelled at. In my column I called on SoCalers to take on a more active role in
the north-south rivalry both for the fun of the game and to enhance the
ballpark experience.
Last Wednesday night I returned to Petco Park, this time to
root for my hometown Giants, except instead of encountering the previously
described “high levels of Southern California complacency,” my friends and I
experienced the worst type of regionally motivated cheering, making me realize
that there is a very thin line between taking a sports rivalry seriously and
being downright ignorant.
I was born and raised in
the city is as dear to me as any aspect of my personality, and I have as much
pride in my roots as is humanly possible. I can rattle off the best restaurants
in every neighborhood, I know which parks are the best to go drinking at with
your friends on a foggy Friday night and above all I brag about the fact that
my city is the most diverse and accepting in the country.
In my sports column I said that following a baseball team
was about more than just casually knowing stats and cheering on a group of 25
grown men — it was about having pride in where you are from and not letting
anybody take that away from you. I still believe that having a connection with
your team is an important part of being a sports fan, but being called a faggot
for 13 innings will make you realize that sports offer a very dangerous outlet
for some people.
I really try not to judge people based on where they’re
from, so why did it seem like every Padres fan Wednesday night went out of
their way to call me and my friends gay solely because we were rooting for the
San Francisco Giants? For the first nine innings of the game, our group was
sitting in the upper reserve and a group of Padres fans planted themselves
behind us and proceeded to yell every antigay slur known to man.
Forget about the fact that there was a family with four young
kids sitting in the row immediately below us, forget that the hecklers were
probably three or four deep into their nightly beer count — what makes me the
most mad is the simple fact that people like that still think that what they do
is completely acceptable. It took every ounce of strength and integrity in my
body to not turn around and yell back at them, or more temptingly, to punch the
guy in his homophobic little face. We didn’t sink to their level — instead we
enjoyed the amazing pitching duel between Matt Cain and Greg Maddux, trying
hard to ignore the rants emanating over our shoulders.
For these types of people, a sports game has nothing to do
with what they are yelling. Yeah, they seemed to yell more loudly after the
Padres got a hit or struck out a Giant, but the game was simply an excuse to be
an asshole in public.
Once extra innings got underway, we moved down to the lower
box seats, and even there we couldn’t shake the anti-San Francisco homophobia
that seemed to be as abundant as strikeouts that night. After seeing that a
group of us, all wearing
gear, moved into his section, one particular man moved down 10 rows in order to
sit right behind us. For three innings (right until Emmanuel Burris hit a
double that sparked the Giants eventual game-winning rally) this man yelled
into our ears that we should return to where we belonged: “the gay bay.”
I would really like to believe that our society is above
this, but obviously there are way too many people who are not just content to
simply be ignorant but also feel the need to express their ignorance out loud,
and if their open forum happens to be at a sporting event, then that’s all the
better for them. Even in the online comments from my sports column, one reader
wrote: “Screw the Giants, I hate all you little Gay SAN FAGS.”
It’s one thing if somebody is a homophobe, albeit
unfortunate, but that just happens to be his or her personal opinion. But to
make a point to use an innocent sporting event as a platform for gay bashing is
unacceptable.
An ignorant person calling me gay doesn’t bother me, but
what if there had actually been a gay man or woman sitting within earshot? What
about some young, impressionable kids who then think its OK to drop f-bombs?
Saying those things repeatedly may desensitize some people, making them slowly
forget the horrible consequences that homophobia has had in American society.
Don’t get me wrong, baseball is my passion, but sitting
through Wednesday night’s
hate-fest made me realize that if this is what sports have become, then it’s not
worth it.
