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LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS — Update-5, April 24, 2016. An excellent look into the online mind of Curt Schilling from the Washington Post:

“When his fear of a changing America manifests in an ornery disdain for millennials’ pathological laziness, unabashed admiration of Walmart’s marketing ploys or public displays of affection for Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson and Donald Trump’s kids, Schilling’s retrograde beliefs are almost quaint: He’s the clichéd right-wing uncle I’ve never known but my white friends all claim to have. More often, though, Schilling’s fear is expressed in other, more hostile ways — like when he shares a video of an American soldier playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” on his electric guitar in an effort to drown out Muslim prayer services, or celebrates Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s harsh treatment of prisoners in his tent-city prison in Maricopa County, Ariz. He sees humans rights and freedoms as extinguishable, transferable resources, reserved mainly for straight, white, middle-aged, Christian, conservative, American males — people like him.”

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Update-4, April 20, 2016. Curt Schilling has been FIRED from ESPN. From the Los Angeles Times:

“ESPN announced Wednesday night it has fired outspoken baseball analyst and former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling after his reposting of a meme widely interpreted as anti-transgender on his Facebook page on Tuesday.

“Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated,” the network said in a statement.”

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Yesterday, ESPN baseball analyst Curt Schilling shared a transphobic meme online, and made the following comments underneath:

“A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis , women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic.”

The meme was later removed but Schilling followed up with comments on his blog. An excerpt:

“You frauds out there ranting and screaming about my ‘opinions’ (even if it isn’t) and comments are screaming for “tolerance” and “acceptance” while you refuse to do and be either.”

ESPN on Tuesday said they’re taking the matter seriously and are reviewing it. Schilling last month got in hot water for defying an ESPN rule to not make political comments during an election year, but he was not disciplined.

Here’s a fella that needs a new job. Let’s help him find one: ESPN headquarters phone: 1-860-766-2000, studio phone (supposedly the best way to reach a human): 800-919-3776 (press 3), email: espnpr@espn.com, espnfrontrow@espn.com, or leave a comment: http://espn.go.com/espn/customercare/tvindex

Update-1, March 20, 2016. From Salon’s Mary Elizabeth Williams: Call it Curt Schilling Syndrome: Overly sensitive man mortally offended by criticism of his own offensive comments. Excerpts

“These defense patterns are so predictable: Shift blame, claim to embrace equality, lecture on “appropriate” causes . . .

You know what never gets old? Middle-aged white guys telling the rest of us how we shouldn’t be offended by their offensiveness. Curt Schilling, show us how it’s done. . . .

Though screen grabs remain (Psssst… removing all traces of stuff off the Internet isn’t as easy as it sounds!) Schilling deleted the post. He did not, however, issue a mea culpa for posting it in the first place. Instead, on Tuesday he sent out a tweet saying, “For all of you people dying to be offended by something that never actually happened,” and a link to a post on his blog he titled, “The hunt to be offended…” Sounding more than a little offended himself, Schilling warned in his screed, “If you get offended by ANYTHING in this post, that’s your fault, all yours.” . . .

Schilling then ended with a refrain that’s apparently familiar to him: “There are actual causes that need attention such as homeless veterans and our archaic education system.” I don’t know about you, but I just love it when Curt Schilling gives a lecture on what our social progress priorities should be. And Curt Schilling doesn’t think trans rights are important because he literally doesn’t understand what they are.”

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Update-2, March 20, 2016. Schilling says he was “blindsided”. From Boston.com:

“Curt Schilling repeatedly said he didn’t understand why he was being criticized for sharing an anti-transgender meme and said “somebody is hunting” during a Wednesday morning interview on WEEI.

This, I don’t wanna say snuck up on me, but it did,” said Schilling, the ESPN analyst and former Red Sox pitcher. “My comment was as innocuous and non-aggressive as anything anybody can say. I’m still trying to figure out how all this happened. . . .

I was kind of blindsided by this one,” he said. “When I got the call [from ESPN], I was like, ‘I don’t get this, how does this become that.’”

Update-3, April 20, 2016. ESPN still considering a decision on Schilling. From The Washington Post:

“ESPN, a company owned by the publicly-traded Disney, has a policy of promoting inclusiveness. “We are taking this matter very seriously,” Josh Krulewitz, ESPN’s vice president of communications, told The Post in an email Tuesday night, “and are in the process of reviewing it.”

Clearly, ESPN is in a difficult position and is taking its time deciding what, if anything, it should do about an employee who continues to generate headlines for expressing controversial personal opinions. Last month, it chose to do nothing when Schilling said that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton “belongs under a jail somewhere.” In late August 2015, the network took Schilling off broadcasts when he shared a meme about Muslims and Nazis (though ESPN later brought him back for postseason games).

Richard Deitsch, who covers the media for Sports Illustrated, tweeted that he believes “there’s a likelihood we will see ESPN announce something on Curt Schilling in the next 48 hours.”

This time, the media giant’s reaction may be different. As Deitsch points out, ESPN can replace Schilling easily, even though he has been a strong baseball analyst. And Schilling would, no doubt, quickly find another job.

“I think Schilling has placed ESPN in a tough spot here. He knows how management feels and he’s pushed the envelope with them,” Deitsch tweeted. “He has every right to espouse his beliefs on his feeds. They in turn have a right to react to that re: putting him (or not) on the air. High-ranking ESPN execs have always told me that when a certain talent becomes too big a headache, that’s usually when the company reacts.”

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Yesterday I wrote about the sentencing of a killer of a NYC trans woman: https://lexiecannes.com/2016/04/19/killer-of-nyc-trans-woman-islan-nettles-sentenced-to-12-years-for-manslaughter/

Curt Schilling: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/04/19/espns-curt-schilling-again-invites-controversy-by-sharing-anti-transgender-meme/

Update-5, Washington Post: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/22/magazine/curt-schillings-hunt-to-be-offended.html?_r=0

Update-4, Schilling FIRED: http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-curt-schilling-espn-20160420-story.html

Update-3: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/04/20/curt-schillings-anti-transgender-meme-might-have-pushed-espn-too-far-this-time/

Update-2: http://www.boston.com/sports/media/2016/04/20/curt-schilling-weei

Update-1: http://www.salon.com/2016/04/20/call_it_curt_schilling_syndrome_overly_sensitive_man_mortally_offended_by_criticism_of_his_own_offensive

Watch LEXIE CANNES right now: http://www.amazon.com/Lexie-Cannes-CourtneyODonnell/dp/B00KEYH3LQ

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Categories: Transgender, Transsexual, Trans, Transphobia, exploitation, dehumanizing, violence, hate