September 28, 2007
We’ll “Embrace” Hardaway After He’s Had a Lot More Time to Prove His Redemption
What the Miami Heat guard said, back in February: “You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States.”
A contrite Tim Hardaway now embraced by some in gay community
The topic was finding ways to keep transgender children safe, and someone asked for volunteers to share an idea.
Tim Hardaway was the first to raise his hand.
“He was so genuine,” said Martha Fugate, the director of the YES Institute, a children’s advocacy group based in South Miami which hosted that discussion. “He gave the perfect answer.”
. . .
“I just wanted to go in and get educated, that’s all. Get educated on what I said and why I said those things,” Hardaway said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. “I’m working on understanding it now. I’m not really trying to make amends. I’ve been there trying to get help.”
. . .
“I had no idea how much I hurt people,” said Hardaway, who spent most of his NBA career with the Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat, and still makes his home in South Florida. “A lot of people.”
. . .
“Thanks to his honest albeit misguided reaction, Tim did find his way to YES Institute and the education he got was not just about others, but about himself,” Fugate wrote. “Because he is a role model, perhaps other people will also learn — hopefully before bad consequences happen to them.”
Filed under: Hate Speech, Homeland Insecurity, Homophobia
