Mitcham defends Olympic swimmer for her anti-gay Twitter remark

Stephanie Rice, an Australian athlete who has lost a lucrative sponsorship deal with luxury brand Jaguar after making a homophobic slur and using the word faggots on Twitter, has been defended by Matthew Mitcham.

Jamie Tabberer

news.PinkPaper.com

Saturday, 4 February 2012

7 September 2010

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Stephanie Rice, an Australian athlete who has lost a lucrative sponsorship with luxury brand Jaguar after making a homophobic slur and using the word 'faggots' on Twitter, has been defended by Matthew Mitcham.

Despite criticism for the triple Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer's language, many have jumped to her defense, including fellow Olympic gold medal-winning diver and openly gay sports hero Matthew Mitcham.

The Australian reports that Mitcham has claimed: "I know she's not homophobic because we are good friends. It was just an extremely poor choice of words."

Rice, also 22, Tweeted "Suck on that faggots"after an Australian rugby team won a high profile match against a South African team at the weekend.

She later apologised for the remark, saying in a statement "I did not mean to cause offense."

However, Jaguar Australia general manager Kevin Goult said: "Jaguar Australia today terminated its relationship with Stephanie Rice, who has been an ambassador for the Jaguar brand in Australia since the start of 2010. The terms of the agreement and its termination remain confidential. We wish Stephanie success for the future."

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- 08/09/2010 14:41:18

If you re read my post, my point was that I don't think she's homophobic. I don't defend homophobia, and I wouldn't defend a racist - but I'd defend a friend if something was taken out of context. She was clearly wrong to use the word, but is she a homophobe? The evidence says no. Racism has been a taboo for me personally for as long as I can remember, growing up my best friend was black and I got in many fights with him against idiot kids. However I never thought for a second that there was anything wrong calling someone "gay" because everyone did it and I had no experience of homosexuality until I got to college. I wasn't sheltered and insular, I was just young. Of course I was also ignorant and wrong, but I got to learn my lessons in a much more private way than Stephanie Rice has. Why do you put "friends" in inverted commas? Am I such a luddite that I can't have gay friends now?

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- 08/09/2010 14:11:55

reply to comment at 11:27:53 am, i'm guessing you would consider it ok to defend your friend if they were racist also, or does this defence of stupidity just apply with homophobia to you? How sheltered and insular must your life have been? that you only realised using the word "fag" in a hateful, evil way was "ignorant" when you had gay "friends".

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- 08/09/2010 11:27:53

It's hardly weak or wishy washy to defend your friend. I very much doubt she's homophobic, and suspect she's just been a tad ignorant. I'm straight, and it wasn't until I worked with and had gay friends that I realised how ignorant saying things like "fag" and "that's gay" in a derogatory way is. I'd never use racial slurs and people need to understand that it has the same impact. This is a very public lesson for the young lady and one I hope she learns from.

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- 08/09/2010 09:45:07

My husband and I both think that Stephanie Rice got the treatment she deserved it is totally unacceptable for anyone in the public eye especially those who are looked on by impressionable young people to make anti gay comments this would also apply if the person was making racial comments whether they were black white or whatever. It is good to see Jaguar standing its grounds and we hope she has poor pay out if any. Maybe she will learn to keep her opinions to herself in future and Matthew Mitcham is biased as Stephanie Rice is a friend.

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- 08/09/2010 04:21:36

Recently, the Association of Surfing Professionals ran two pre-recorded pieces with their professional athletes using "gay" in a derogatory way - broadcast around the world so young surfers could see it. On the first offense, I contacted the International Media Manager for ASP International, Dave Prodan, and to his credit he responded immediately and apologized, making the producers bleep the word in the piece with a rooster crow. http://billabongpro.com/tahiti10/videos-view/when_interviews_go_wrong/ Only a few days later, however, while watching the live broadcast of the event I saw another pre-recorded piece play while the surfers waited between set waves. In this piece a surfer explains that a short video of him that went viral on the internet claiming he hates children is "gay", negative connotation, not factual. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK3kex9U8r0 Please join me in sending an email to dave@aspworldtour.com so that his athletes stop using this term in this way.

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- 07/09/2010 23:55:50

oh no , another weak wishy washy gay who accepts homophobic comments on a public forum.

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