Last week we went viral.
Around the internet on various sites catering to hockey fans and to a lesser extent homosexuals, the Niagara Falls Reporter and columnist Lenny Palumbo were criticized for publishing something many thought should not be published.
What caused the commotion was that Mr. Palumbo criticized a promotional campaign that features NHL hockey players who suggest homosexuality is no bar to playing hockey and oppose any discrimination against players based on sexual orientation.
Mr. Palumbo, who has a young son, finds this promotional campaign offensive and says he does not believe a homosexual lifestyle is morally appropriate. He cites religious and personal beliefs.
These are the words Mr. Palumbo used that seem to have offended a number of people, not all of whom are gay:
“The (NHL) is determined to reduce fighting as much as possible. Meanwhile, the NHL’s abominable ‘You Can Play’ promotion, which all but endorses homosexuality in hockey, is among its top priorities. Thanks to Gary Bettman (commissioner of the NHL) and his ilk, enforcers are out but gays are in. So why don’t they just hire Elton John as commissioner and be done with it?
“Fortunately for Sabres fans, the team has not come out of the closet and the signing of tough guy, John Scott is an indication there might be some shred of manliness left in an otherwise emasculated organization that has much to prove in 2012-13.”
Within hours of Mr. Palumbo’s article being published, it was denounced on websites and blogs. The popular website www.deadspin.com, which describes its contents as “Sports News without Access, Favor, or Discretion,” posted an article entitled, “Today In Insanely Homophobic Statements From Small-Town Sports Columnists.”
“I don’t think we need to go into why (Mr. Palumbo’s article) is so f— up,” wrote deadspin writer Barry Petchesky. “There’s plenty of logic-based Palumbo smackdown at Pension Plan Puppets and Battle of California (other websites), should you want some. Instead, we’ll just eagerly wait for the day when a Buffalo enforcer also happens to be gay, and Lenny Palumbo’s Neolithic brain explodes.”
The “smackdown” referred to in www.pensionplanpuppets.com included a declaration that “Lenny Palumbo is an outmoded homophobe.”
After quoting Mr. Palumbo, Pension Plan Puppet writer, “Skinny Fish,” in language perhaps not less offensive than the language that offended him so much, asks, “What sort of tripe is this?” then answers the question, it is “a homophobic rant” and Mr. Palumbo “a Cro-Magnon.”
Skinny Fish asks if it might be in the “best interests” of the Reporter “to part ways with people like Lenny Palumbo who will only serve to keep your publication firmly rooted in the past with the rest of the bigots, homophobes, and ignorant masses?”
More “smackdown” was found at the www.battleofcali.com, where it was posted that “Lenny Palumbo is a Piece of Garbage,” and described how wrong Mr. Palumbo was to make rude and offensive comments about gays.