Oakland A's Pitcher Brandon McCarthy is
speaking out against a comedic “Kiss Cam” routine, calling it
anti-gay.
The routine involves adding two random
men to the tail end of a “Kiss Cam,” encouraging the men to kiss
on camera as everyone in the stadium looks on.
It's a joke because it makes the men –
who most likely are straight – uncomfortable.
Last week, the 28-year-old McCarthy
tweeted against the practice: “They put two guys on the 'Kiss Cam'
tonight. What hilarity!! (by hilarity I mean offensive homophobia).
Enough with this stupid trend.”
In remarks to the San
Francisco Chronicle, McCarthy expanded on his tweet.
“There's that stupid, little comedic
value of it if you don't really think about what it implies,” he
said. “It kind of got old on that level. Then I actually started
thinking about why we were supposed to be laughing, and it bugged
me.”
“The whole thing bugs me on a
non-homophobic level, because it's awkward.”
“If there are gay people who are
coming to a game and seeing something like that, you can't assume
they're comfortable with it,” McCarthy said. “If you're even
making a small group of people … feel like outcasts, then you're
going against what makes your model successful.”