Charles Barkley on Immigrant and Gay Rights

David Zirin writes in the Nation:

 
. . . I am always astounded by Charles Barkley (the former NBA basketball star-turned sports analyst). It’s not just that the NBA Hall of Famer-turned-announcer speaks without a filter. There is many a Howard Stern–Kathy Griffin–Jersey Shore–fungal spawn who do that on a nightly basis. It’s that Barkley actually has something to say. . .

Barkley is no dilettante on the issue of LGBT rights, especially impressive in the often-homophobic hamlet of professional sports. As early as August 2006 on Fox Sports, the NBA Hall of Famer said, [5] “I’m a big advocate of gay marriage If they want to get married, God bless them.”

In 2008, speaking to a rather rattled Wolf Blitzer on CNN, Barkley said, [6]”Every time I hear the word ‘conservative,’ it makes me sick to my stomach, because they’re really just fake Christians, as I call them. That’s all they are…. I think they want to be judge and jury. Like, I’m for gay marriage. It’s none of my business if gay people want to get married. I’m prochoice. And I think these Christians, first of all, they’re not supposed to judge other people. But they’re the most hypocritical judge of people we have in the country. And it bugs the hell out of me. They act like they’re Christians. They’re not forgiving at all.”

On MLK day, Barkley also didn’t stop there. He said “We have discrimination against Hispanic people in this country and we need to answer to that.”

This echoed his comments last Cinco de Mayo, after the passage of Arizona’s SB 1070 law where he said, “Immigrants aren’t the problem. The only people screwing it up are the politicians. You know, living in Arizona for a long time, the Hispanic community, they’re like the fabric of the cloth. They’re part of our community and any time you try to do any type of racial profiling or racial discrimination is wrong.” Click here for more.

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