Australian Olympic gold medal winning swimmer Stephanie Rice, whose anti-gay comment posted to Twitter early Sunday has come to cost her literally and figuratively, attending a hastily called press conference in Sydney Wednesday and pleaded with the public to forgive her, and underlined again that she does not consider herself homophobic. “My comments were thoughtless and careless but I can assure you when I made those comments on Twitter I never intended to offend anybody,” Rice said. “I’ve learned a lot in the last couple of days. I’ve learned I must think before I speak and this has been a very important lesson. I’ve also learned that some things you say can mean more to others that they do to you.” The 22 year old, deemed a complete idiot by openly gay rugby player Ian Roberts and defended by openly gay Olympic gold medal winning diver Matthew Mitcham, added “I owe it to those I have offended to publicly say, I am sorry. It is not me to give offense to other people no matter who they are. I am not a person who judges others or speaks in a way that hurts others. I felt I’ve let a lot of people down. I just want people to know how sorry I am. I’m just here to gain people’s trust back and show how out of character it was.”
Yoann Lemaire, an openly gay soccer player, played with the small club La Chooz for 14 years, taking a sabbatical in 2009 after certain teammates made homophobic comments during a television interview. Lemaire has since requested to return, but the team refused, rejecting an application to renew his license “to avoid further incidents,” a reference to a number of threats (including death) directed towards Lemair. French Junior Sports Minister Rama Yade, the gay soccer organization Paris Foot Gay, and others have since asked the national federation governing soccer to impose sanctions against the club, Paris Foot Gay saying any and all censure of the club would “help the football world to realize that homophobia is as bad as racism and anti-Semitism.”
Microsoft Corporation and Xbox Live are apologizing to a tiny West Virginia town and to 26 year old Josh Moore, the gamer accused of violating the Xbox code of conduct by declaring he was a resident of Fort Gay. An agent reviewing another gamer complaint against Moore refused to believe that Fort Gay existed, and suspended Moore’s privileges for a number of days last week.
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