Last month when I wrote about Charles Barkley’s comments on an active gay athlete coming out, I referred to those who would not be accepting of such a thing as “Neanderthals.” Some people in the comments thought it was a low blow of me to refer to simple dumb bigots as “Neanderthals.” To each his own, I guess.
Know this, though, someone on the Mets agrees with me. In a blog post by Andy Martino talking about Mets players’ mixed reaction to New York’s passage of gay marriage law, one anonymous Met said this:
Know what? Between last month’s thing and this, I believe my strongest feelings about all of this have to do with my sense that the Neanderthals are being slandered. Neanderthals were actually pretty cool! They made advanced tools. They had complex social groups, were able to control fire, skinned animals and it is believed that they even had a language.
To suggest that someone who has enmity for another simply because of who they choose to* love is a “Neanderthal” is truly unfair to a species as evolved as the Neanderthal.
*Lazy choice of words on my part because obviously we don’t choose such things. If you differ on this point, I’d simply ask that you tell me the date on which you chose your sexual orientation before offering your comments. Thanks!
