Former Houston Astros player Lance Berkman cut a radio ad against Houston's HERO ordinance that would have protected LGBT rights in the city. After HERO went down to a resounding electoral defeat on Tuesday, Berkman went on radio to take a victory lap but also to display stunning ignorance and Christian victimization.

"To me tolerance is the virtue that's killing this country," Berkman said on KTRH 740 AM's "The Michael Berry Show. "We're tolerant of everything. You know, everything is OK, and as long as you want to do it and as long as it feels good to you then it's perfectly acceptable do it. Those are the kinds of things that lead you down a slippery slope, and you'll get in trouble in a hurry."

Berkman, an outspoken Christian, calls opposition to his views "persecution" and said the ordinance was "an LGBT agenda-type thing." Yet at the same time, he says he opposes discrimination. But with HERO's defeat, it is now legal to discriminate against LGBT people in Houston, a fact that sailed right over Berkman's thick head.

How stupid is Berkman? Here is his exact quote on discrimination: "I'm not against discriminating against anybody, I'm not against depriving anyone of their civil rights." Huh? If taken literally, he is FOR discrimination. I will assume he meant the reverse, but it shows how poorly spoken and clueless he is. In his radio ad against HERO, which would have allowed trans people to use the restroom of their choice, he called such people "troubled."

"What's become a shame is that it seems like anybody who has an opinion that comes more from right immediately gets castigated, called a bigot, by voicing that opinion," Berkman said. It's not a shame, it's called free speech.



Berkman has a right to his views and I have a right to call him what he is: an ignorant, intolerant bigot. The real shame here is that 61% of Houstonians agreed with him Tuesday night and deprived people in their city of their rights.

You can listen to Berkman's interview here.