GOP lobbyist pushing to ban gay NFL players backs off, kind of

On Monday GOP lobbyist Jack Burkman said he had plans to introduce legislation that would ban gay football players from the NFL.

“We are losing our decency as a nation,” Burkman said in a statement. “Imagine your son being forced to shower with a gay man. That’s a horrifying prospect for every mom in the country. What in the world has this nation come to?”

Now he is backing off, kind of, in a interview on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas/Ft. Worth.

“A lot of people say it’s about discrimination or homophobia, it’s not about any of those things,” Burkman said. “We have basic standards of civility and common decency in our society. For instance, you don’t have the cheerleaders go in and take a shower with the football players because we believe that men and women should be separate, for reasons that they’re sexually attracted to each other and other reasons that we all understand.  Now, if you separate men and women, doesn’t it make sense that you would separate a gay man and a straight man?

“That’s not discrimination against the straight man or the gay man, that’s simply common decency in the same way you would separate a man and a woman.”

The bill will look to impose criminal penalties and severe fines for each violation ranging from $3 million to $8 million. Burkman also thinks NFL players and teams are afraid to speak freely on the subject and he believes the bill will pass and become a law.

“Tactically, legislatively — I think we’re going to win, and I think we’re going to win it big.”

It doesn’t seem to reason that it would become law or upheld in a courtroom. Passing this bill becomes a slipper slope, what about private gyms with showers? What about bathrooms? Will every establishment in the United States have to install a separate bathroom for gay people to use?

Meanwhile Missouri defensive end Michael Sam, who is poised to become the league’s first openly gay player, isn’t worried about it.