Local Dallas sports broadcaster Dale
Hansen said that while he doesn't understand being gay he knows it's
time to celebrate Michael Sam.
Sam is the 24-year-old college football
player and solid NFL draft prospect who came out gay Sunday. If
drafted, Sam would become the NFL's first openly gay player.
(Related: Michael
Sam, NFL draft prospect, comes out gay.)
In a nearly 2-minute segment aired on
Monday, Hansen, sports anchor for ABC affiliate WFAA, defended Sam's
coming out, questioning critics who claim it would be uncomfortable
to have an openly gay player in the NFL.
“You beat a woman and drag her down a
flight of stairs, pulling her hair out by the roots? You're the
fourth guy taken in the NFL draft. You kill people while driving
drunk? That guy's welcome. Players caught in hotel rooms with
illegal drugs and prostitutes? We know they're welcome. Players
accused of rape and pay the woman to go away? You lie to police,
trying to cover up a murder. We're comfortable with that.”
“You love another man? Well, now
you've gone too far!”
“I'm not always comfortable when a
man tells me he's gay. I don't understand his world. But I do
understand that he's part of mine,” Hansen added.
“Civil rights activist Audre Lorde
said, 'It is not our differences that divide us, it is our inability
to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences.' We've always
been able to recognize them, some of us accept them. And I want to
believe that there will be a day when we do celebrate them. I don't
know if that day's here yet, I guess we're about to find out. But
when I listen to Michael Sam, I do think it's time to celebrate him
now.” (The video is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)