Roland Martin’s Super Bowl Comments Advocating Violence Against Gays Spark Outrage
GLAAD Calls For CNN To Fire Political Analyst and Contributor Roland Martin
CNN contributor Roland Martin has once again made extreme, anti-gay comments — and this time GLAAD has said, enough. During Sunday’s Super Bowl commercials, Martin took special offense, apparently, to an H&M commercial for David Beckham’s underwear, which showed Beckham wearing his Beckham briefs, and nothing else. Roland Martin wrote via Twitter, “Ain’t no real bruhs going to H&M to buy some damn David Beckham underwear!,” and then, “If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him!” Sunday night, GLAAD began a campaign calling on CNN to fire Martin: “Advocates of anti-gay violence have no place at CNN or Time Warner.”
GLAAD, which is the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, also notes:
Earlier today, Martin posted to his Facebook fan page: “Who the hell was that New England Patriot they just showed in a head to toe pink suit? Oh, he needs a visit from #teamwhipdatass”
Since making the comments, Martin has suggested his tweet regarding David Beckham was intended as a slight toward soccer fans. He did not respond to a question from Metro Weekly about why, if the tweet was about soccer and not based in anti-gay sentiment, he only referenced his concern about “a dude … hyped” about the ad and not any soccer fan.
Martin also commented on Twitter, “I said ladies, if your boyfriend don’t like sports, send him back to the factor. He’s defective. It’s called A JOKE.” We’re assuming he meant “factory.”
It is inconceivable for Martin to attempt to claim that his Facebook comment and his tweets were an attack on soccer and not homophobic.
Not only are they homophobic, but they advocate violence against gays, or anyone who doesn’t fall into Martin’s personal concept of how men are supposed to behave.
Frankly, it’s sad that a 43-year old journalist is so insecure that he feels the need to make anti-gay comments via Twitter advocating for violence against gays.
Watch: The David Beckham Super Bowl Ad That “Made†Roland Martin Advocate Anti-Gay Violence
Of course, Twitter was ensconced in outrage over Martin’s comments. Martin, for his part, told his detractors to “deal with it,” claiming their objections were “just another lie,” and claimed many were wrongly “assuming” they knew what he actually had meant. At one point Martin told MetroWeekly’s Chris Geidner, “what you’re missing is I’ve cracked on real men and football.”
GLAAD also notes the homophobia in Martin’s past.
A closer look at his record gives a window into Martin’s anti-gay views.
Last year, Tracy Morgan said during a stand-up routine that if his son were gay he would ‘stab him.’ Morgan later apologized and worked with GLAAD to send a positive messages to parents and LGBT youth.
Morgan understood how his words could influence his fans and put youth in danger, while Martin defended Tracy Morgan’s original remarks.
Wrote Martin: “Say I’m wrong. Fine. Say I’m insensitive to gays and lesbians. Fine.”
He continued: “Sorry, if I’m being honest here and not focusing on political correctness. I just believe that many of you would be shocked and amazed that you laughed hysterically at some of the most sexist, homophobic, racist stuff imaginable by comedians of all shapes, sizes, ethnic backgrounds, genders and sexual orientations.”At a time when the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs found that violence against LGBT people was up 23%, we need people in the public eye to speak out against the dangers of anti-LGBT violence, not openly encourage it.
Martin also has used his platform to misrepresent religious views about LGBT people. Far from the church being uniformly anti-gay, as Martin has claimed, LGBT people are welcomed just as they are into the full life of the church, in congregations and entire denominations across the United States. Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Episcopal denominations welcome LGBT folks, as well as many congregations from a variety of denominations.
On Martin’s website he ignores the medical evidence about the ineffective nature and harms associated with so-called ex-gay programs and instead praises his wife who he says “has counseled many men and women to walk away from the gay lifestyle.”
Roland Martin’s comments Sunday night, along with his comments during the Tracy Morgan episode, in conjunction with his 2006 column, “Faith – not social pressures – must govern church on issue of homosexuality,” make it clear Martin is incapable of representing the CNN brand appropriately.
Of Rev. Al Sharpton’s attempts “to create a faith movement among gay, transgender, lesbian and bisexual African Americans,” Martin wrote,
“What leaders of this effort must come to understand is that the fundamental issue is that gays and lesbians want to be accepted and embraced by the church, and not acknowledge that they are engaged, in the eyes of the church, in sinful behavior.”
Martin, equating homosexuality with alcoholism and theft, added, “for Christians, going to church is not supposed to be a feel good exercise. We are expected to be convicted, and encouraged to walk away from sin and live a more Christ-like life. In my church, this goes for the woman who is an alcoholic, the child who continues to be disobedient to his parents, the young lady who is hell-bent on stealing, and the person who is gay.”
“The church is called to love our fellow man, preach the good news and set the captives free – free from a life of sin. Â That isn’t being homophobic. It’s being a Christian. And no one should have to apologize for that.”
Yes, they should, Mr. Martin. And it’s about time that you do. But we’ve been here before. We’ve time and time again asked you rot reconsider your anti-gay positions and apologize and you refuse.
GLAAD is right to call for your termination.
I hope your colleagues at CNN, including Don Lemon, Anderson Cooper, John King, David Gergen, Donna Brazile, and Wolf Blitzer personally sign this petition, and then pick up the phone and call the people at CNN’s Human Resources and file a complaint about your behavior.
You can sign GLAAD’s petition here, and contact CNN about Roland Martin here.
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President Donald Trump thrilled his supporters in New York on Friday as he shared how he came up with his latest nickname for Democrats — his explanation included a spelling lesson.
“Blue means Dumocrat,” the president said. “That’s a new name I came up with.”
“I was, I was thinking about this character we have in the House. His name is Hakeem Jeffries,” Trump said to boos from the audience.
“And he’s a low IQ person, very low IQ.”
“And I watched what he was saying, and what the horrible things he was saying, and I said, ‘He’s a dumb guy.’ I said, Wait a minute, he’s a Dumocrat. That’s how I got the name,” Trump excitedly said.
“You take the ‘e’ out, you don’t use the ‘b’. A lot of people don’t know ‘dumb’ has a ‘b’ in it, actually. You don’t need it. You discard the ‘b.’
“But you take the ‘e’ out, and you replace it with a ‘u.'”
“They are Dumocrats. You know why? ‘Cause their policies are dumb. Their policies are very dumb. All of their policies.”
Critics mocked the president.
“His uncle taught at MIT, but Trump just recently learned there is a b in dumb,” wrote political strategist Jeff Timmer.
“Dumbo @realDonaldTrump here is the only one who doesn’t know there’s a b in DUMB,” said former GOP Congresswoman Barbara Comstock.
“It’s impossible to overstate how f— — stupid Trump looks on the world stage,” wrote another online commenter.
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s controversial Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, is resigning.
“Unfortunately, I must submit my resignation, effective June 30, 2026,” DNI Gabbard wrote to President Trump, Fox News reports. “My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer.”
“During pivotal moments,” NBC News reports, “as Trump deliberated over possible military action or watched live video feeds of operations in Iran or Venezuela, Gabbard was often not in the room, underscoring her outsider status.”
“Gabbard has had a tough tenure being sidelined on Venezuela and Iran. Last month, Trump floated replacing her with Pam Bondi, but some advisers saved her,” reported WIRED’s Hugo Lowell.
President Trump wrote that Gabbard had done an “incredible job,” and “we will miss her,” while Reuters reports that the White House ”forced” Gabbard “to resign from her post, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday.”
The Wall Street Journal’s Dave Brown called Gabbard’s tenure “tumultuous.”
Critics were quick to respond.
“Good riddance. The Iran war has been the biggest display of intelligence incompetence in decades,” wrote U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI).
“Tulsi Gabbard leaves this administration in disgrace after helping Trump drag the country into yet another forever war in the Middle East,” wrote political strategist Mike Nellis. “She built her entire image on opposing these wars, then abandoned that principle the second it became politically inconvenient. That’s her legacy: a complete fraud, completely full of s— — about the one thing people thought she genuinely believed in. Good f— — riddance.”
“Also, is anybody in Congress or the media going to get to the bottom of the whistleblower’s story about Tulsi Gabbard withholding classified intercepted intel for political reasons?” Nellis continued. “What the hell happened there, or are we just going to pretend that didn’t happen?”
“Are we ever going to found out if Tulsi Gabbard broke how many different national security laws by allegedly refusing to hand over investigative documents, or is that just going away now?” asked writer Charlotte Clymer.
Professor and policy analyst Adam Cochran called Gabbard’s resignation “shocking,” and added: “Can’t imagine what they would ask to do that is too out of line for her…”
Associate Professor of Political Science Christopher Clary said Gabbard “will go down as perhaps the most ineffective and incompetent DNI in the short history of that position.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump managed to effectively raise taxes on the majority of Americans through his tax policies, while handing the richest five percent a tax cut. Now, many Americans want to see the rich pay their fair share — and that could mean increasing their taxes.
The former chief economist of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Professor Zachary Liscow, argues there’s a “slow, boring” yet “easy” way to do so.
“The United States is seeing an increasing concentration of wealth at the very top and a worsening national debt,” Liscow writes in an op-ed at The New York Times. “For many Americans, taxing the rich more is an obvious move.”
He details some of the “novel proposals to curb the many intricate ways the rich make and hide their money,” including a wealth tax, a tax on unrealized gains, and a tax on “loans that billionaires take against their stock.”
But, Liscow warns, while novel, these methods would not raise the substantial amount of money the U.S. needs.
“The boring truth is that Congress can accomplish a lot simply by raising the rates of the taxes already on the books,” Liscow explains.
He examines U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) proposal to tax “fortunes above $50 million,” and says there are “serious constitutional and policy arguments for this idea, but the Supreme Court’s current members would probably strike it down.”
There is a billionaire’s tax proposal by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) that would tax unrealized capital gains, “the appreciation in the paper value of assets such as stocks.” That would likely find a Supreme Court challenge.
There are other tax vehicles, like fixing the “buy, borrow, die” loophole, which would tax loans taken against stock portfolios, but that would likely not raise sufficient funds: “It’s just not where the money is.”
He finds that “the most powerful lever is also the simplest one,” and concludes that “Congress has a simpler, tried-and-true tax policy to choose from: raising the rates.”
Liscow is advocating to restore the “top marginal ordinary income tax rate to its pre-2017 level of 39.6 percent” — where it was before Trump’s first term in office.
“In addition, raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent toward the 35 percent it had been set at historically would add hundreds of billions in revenue for the government,” he says.
“Raising the rates,” Liscow concludes, “the simple, boring answer — is where the real money lies.”
Image: Christopher Penler / Shutterstock.com
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