Actual update later, hopefully?
For my own records, the text of the email I sent You Can Play this evening. Now can everyone just SIT THE FUCK DOWN AND STOP DOING SHITTY THINGS FOR, LIKE, FIVE MINUTES?! Not impressed, world, not impressed at all. :(
Dear Patrick Burke, Brian Kitts, and Glenn Witman,
I'm writing today in response to the statement dated July 13th from You Can Play on Cam Janssen's recent comments, and your discussions with him (and the New Jersey Devils) after the fact.
As a queer hockey fan who has been thrilled to support You Can Play since its launch, I was troubled by the framing of this statement. I understand that it is difficult to strike a tone which will not set on the defensive the teams and players with whom you hope to work and educate, but it is also very difficult to take this statement as it stands as anything other than a rush to reassure potential homophobes rather than LGBT athletes or fans. The intent may have been to give both halves equal consideration, but this does appear to privilege the offender over those whose safety and rights were explicitly threatened.
Janssen's comments -- as far as they have been available to the general public -- seem like little more than a pro-forma apology, and one that was only offered after it became clear that his offensive, threatening statements were not going to go unchallenged. As someone who has had to deal with homophobia, such comments are not an intellectual issue for me, but something deeply personal, and it is hard to accept this belated apology as it stands, and to give him the benefit of the doubt. I would like to be able to - and I will be extremely happy if he does indeed never say anything homophobic again - but it’s going to take more than a second-hand verbal comment for me to be able to feel confident about that. I want everyone to have the opportunity to be educated and learn to behave better, but my personal experience - and, let's face it, that of many other LGBT people - has taught me to be more cynical about that prospect.
More importantly, I feel that calling what he said a "homophobic slur" really does diminish the impact of what was actually phrased as a direct threat to gay players. I have absolutely no problem with the words "sucking cock"; my problem is with the statement that Janssen made in which he explicitly said that he would "kick the ass" of a guy who was "sucking cock". It takes a lot of effort to read that quote as anything other than him stating he would "kick that guy's ass BECAUSE he's sucking cock". I know that if I was likely to cross paths with Janssen at all -- on or off the ice -- I would feel distinctly unsafe in being out around him, even after the apology.
While I realise you are all in the awkward position of having to make every effort not to alienate teams and players, I really wish in this instance you had threaded this path a little closer to the side of making it clear your organisation supports the rights of LGBT people to feel safe and unthreatened, rather than back-patting straight people for recanting homophobic statements.
I've seen enough of the truly excellent work you have all done up till this point to assume that you're acting with the best of intentions, but honestly this particular media release does more harm compared to your statement of purpose than it does good. I hope you will be able to consider and discuss this amongst yourselves further, and to see the perspective of those of us who have an issue with how this has been handled, and I hope I will be able to continue to look at You Can Play as an organisation of constructive allies in the future.
Best regards,
Claire
...pretty sure I undersold to try and make myself seem more reasonable, thanks society, what an awesome habit to have to inculcate in us ladies, but.. bleargh. Hopefully they will listen. I'm trying to remind myself that I sent the wicked angry email to Marek and Wysh when they were complete neanderthals a while back in full expectation of getting a reply that would make me angry/sad and instead got a decent one, so maybe they'll surprise me, but... bleargh. Be better, everyone. BE. BETTER. And go fuck yourself, Cam Janssen. :(
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