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    Harrison Butker’s jersey sales rise as right wing lauds Chiefs kicker after rant

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    Harrison Butker’s university commencement address at Benedictine College excoriating Pride month, working women, abortion rights activists and others has prompted the National Football League to disavow his remarks – but the Kansas City Chiefs placekicker’s jersey sales have spiked as conservatives seize on their latest culture war.Butker has also drawn an impassioned statement of support from Josh Hawley, the far-right US senator from Missouri known for his opposition to abortion and a viral video which showed him running away from the mob he incited during the US Capitol attack on 6 January 2021.“We need a different generation of kids that are willing to say no that’s not right, there is such a thing as right and wrong, I’m not going in for all of this lefty garbage and I just thought that his calls for folks to stand up and be bold was great,” Hawley said in reference to Butker during an interview on Wednesday with Spectrum News.An NFL spokesperson on Thursday said the comments Butker delivered as the graduation speaker at Benedictine College five days earlier ran contrary to the league’s “commitment to inclusion”.“Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity,” said the statement from the NFL senior vice-president Jonathan Beane, the league’s chief diversity and inclusion officer. “His views are not those of the NFL as an organization.”The NFL’s statement aligned relatively closely with a separate one issued by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (Glaad), which dismissed Butker’s 20-minute address as “a clear miss” and “woefully out of step with Americans about Pride, LGBTQ people and women”.Another notable rejection of Butker’s opinions came in the form of a statement from the Benedictine Sisters of Mount Saint Scholastica, which co-founded the college where the kicker spoke.“The sisters … do not believe that Harrison Butker’s comments … represent the Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts college that our founders envisioned and in which we have been so invested,” their statement said. “Instead of promoting unity in our church, our nation, and the world, his comments seem to have fostered division.”Yet, in scenes that called to mind the political right wing’s enthrallment with the film Sound of Freedom last year, Butker’s jersey was among the most sold as of Thursday, according to NFL.com.His jersey sales still trailed that of his Chiefs teammate Travis Kelce, whose support for vaccines and the Black Lives Matter movement – as well as his relationship with Taylor Swift – have infuriated the far-right set that is now coddling Butker. However, Butker’s jersey sales were outpacing that of the Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who has led Kansas City to three Super Bowl victories since the 2019 season.The Kansas City news station KCTV reported that a local store named the Rally House had completely sold out of Butker jerseys amid his speech’s controversy.“Just the demand after the speech – it’s been men and women. It’s been both calling to get his jersey,” the store’s manager, Aaron Lewis, reportedly told KCTV.Hawley on Wednesday then offered himself as one of the most public faces of the conservative delight inspired by the offense Butker caused with his speech.“He talks about not being too nice when you’re standing up for your convictions,” Hawley said to Spectrum News, a little more than three years after he threw up a clenched fist at – and then was caught on video running from – a mob of Donald Trump supporters who carried out the deadly Capitol attack after the former president’s 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden. “And I just think he’s right about that.”In his speech to the conservative Catholic school’s graduating class, Butker referred to “dangerous gender ideologies” in an apparent allusion to Pride month, which has been celebrated annually in June since the Stonewall riots in 1969.He also told the women in the audience that “homemaker” should be the “most important title” they hold.“I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world,” Butker said.Among a host of other arguments, Butker contended that access to abortion – which most Americans favor – stemmed from “pervasiveness of disorder”.The 28-year-old Butker’s conservative Catholic beliefs are well known, and so are his on-field exploits, including booting a field goal that forced the decisive overtime period in Kansas City’s Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ers in February.Benedictine, a private liberal arts school about 60 miles north of Kansas City, invited Butker to be its commencement speaker nearly three years to the day after the college removed its chaplain from his position after he disclosed “inappropriate conduct” with a female student.Meanwhile, a report on Friday from the Chicago Sun-Times documented how an Illinois-based monk belonging to the religious order which is associated with Benedictine pleaded guilty to a felony battery charge against a former student of the school where he taught – and has now landed on a list of organization members deemed to have been credibly accused of child sexual abuse.
    The Associated Press contributed reporting More

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      Catholic ‘Pride mass’ in Pennsylvania canceled after protests

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      A Roman Catholic mass to be held in western Pennsylvania this weekend in solidarity with LGBTQ Catholics has been canceled after flyers for the service switched the designation to a “Pride mass”.The cancellation of Sunday mass at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh came at the request of the diocese after protesting emails and calls, some of them threatening, officials said. While the exact nature of the protest messages is unclear, they come at a time when major brands like Target, Bud Light and Starbucks have faced rightwing backlash for using the Pride labeling.The Pittsburgh mass had been organized by Catholics for Change in Our Church with the help of LGBTQ+ outreach ministries, said group’s president Kevin Hayes, and similar in nature to other outreach efforts toward Black or Hispanic parishioners.Trouble arose after independent sponsors of the event promoted the mass with a flyer “that confused some and enraged others”, according the Bishop David Zubik of the Pittsburgh diocese.“This event was billed as a ‘Pride mass’ organized to coincide with Pride Month, an annual secular observance that supports members of the LGBTQ community on every level, including lifestyle and behavior, which the church cannot endorse,” Zubik said in a letter to priests, deacons and seminarians in the diocese.Zubik added that protesters incorrectly assumed that he had approved the event, and that the critics of the mass had used “condemning and threatening, and some might say hateful, language not in keeping with Christian charity”.Bishop Zubik said he asked that the gathering be canceled “given all that has transpired surrounding this event”.Kevin Hayes, president of Catholics for Change in Our Church, said that group members “are very sad and very frustrated”. He added that the goal had been to “just have LGBTQ Catholics feel welcomed as beloved sons and daughters of a loving God and just be affirmed for who they are within the context of the Eucharist, which we feel is appropriate.” More

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      Joe Biden marks Pride month with high-profile support of LGBTQ+ community

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      Joe Biden unveiled new initiatives on Thursday to protect LGBTQ+ communities but hastily postponed a big Pride Month celebration on the White House lawn with thousands of guests from around the country because of poor air quality from the Canadian wildfires.The event, which will now be held on Saturday, was intended to be a high-profile show of support at a time when members of the LGBTQ+ community feel under attack like never before and the White House has little recourse to beat back a flood of state-level legislation against them.The Biden administration announced initiatives designed to protect LGBTQ+ communities from attack, help young people with mental health issues and homelessness, and counter book bans, though the effects may be limited. Biden was to discuss them at the event, which the White House had said would be the largest Pride Month celebration ever held there.Thousands of guests had been invited from around the country for an evening filled with food, games and other activities on the South Lawn. Queen HD the DJ was handling the music, and singer Betty Who was on tap to perform.But the nation’s capital by late morning on Thursday was under a “code purple” air quality alert, the fifth-highest level on the six-level US air quality index, with authorities recommending that everyone limit their exposure to the hazardous smoke wafting south from Canada. District of Columbia schools canceled all outdoor activities for a second day, and the National Zoo also closed.The moves comes as the US’s largest community LGBTQ+ advocacy organization has declared a state of emergency in America when it comes to civil rights. The Human Rights Campaign has issued the statement due to what it said was “an unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislative assaults sweeping state houses this year”.The White House was closely monitoring air quality due to hazardous smoke from Canadian wildfires to determine whether to proceed with plans for a Thursday night picnic featuring food, games, face painting and photos.Karine Jean-Pierre, the first openly gay White House press secretary, said Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris and their spouses were strong supporters of the LGBTQ+ community and think that having a celebration is an important way to “lift up” their accomplishments and contributions.She said LGBTQ+ people needed to know that Biden “has their back” and “will continue to fight for them. And that’s the message that we want to make sure that gets out there.”Biden was announcing that the Department of Homeland Security, working with the justice and health and human services departments, will partner with LGBTQ+ community organizations to provide safety resources and training to help thwart violent attacks.Separately, HHS and the Department of Housing and Urban Development will provide resources to help LGBTQ+ young people with mental health needs, support in foster care and homelessness.Hundreds of bills have been proposed restricting the rights of transgender people, including limiting their access to certain forms of healthcare, and LGBTQ+ advocates say they have seen a record number of such measures in statehouses.After the supreme court last year overturned a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, Biden signed legislation to protect marriage equality. He continues to urge Congress to send him the Equality Act, which would add civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ individuals to federal law.Polls show that public support for the rights of people who are gay and lesbian has expanded dramatically over the last two decades, with about seven in 10 US adults in polling by Gallup saying that marriages between same-sex adults should be legally valid and that gay and lesbian relationships are morally acceptable.But attitudes toward transgender people are complex: in polls conducted in 2022 by KFF and the Washington Post and by the Pew Research Center, majorities said they support laws prohibiting discrimination against transgender people in areas such as housing, jobs and schools. More

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      Conservatives are bullying pro-LGBTQ+ companies, just in time for Pride Month | Arwa Mahdawi

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      Pride Month is about to get started and you know what that means: the shops are full of rainbow flags and what the Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC) has called “demonic paraphernalia”. As insiders know, Clause 3.4 of the Gay Agenda stipulates that during the month of June homosexuals of the world must unite to brainwash the masses and convert innocent heterosexuals to our dastardly ways.For the last few years corporations have happily gone along with all this. They’ve made a big song and dance about how they value things like inclusivity and diversity and human rights. They’ve spoken about how important kindness is. They’ve kowtowed to LGBTQ+ people who have made unreasonable demands that they be treated like people. They’ve talked about dangerous things like respect and acceptance.Now, however, conservatives are fighting back and demanding corporations embrace good old-fashioned bigotry again. The last few weeks have seen a wave of hate campaigns against brands who have aligned themselves with the LGBTQ+ community in even the smallest of ways. The unhinged backlash over Bud Light sending a few personalised cans of beer to the transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney kicked things off. Politicians like Ron DeSantis eagerly weighing in on the manufactured controversy added fuel to the fire. Bud Light’s bungled response to the hate campaign, which appeared to pander to the right, made things even worse.Seemingly emboldened by their success in intimidating Bud Light, conservatives have taken on new targets including Target. Last week CPAC attacked the US retailer because it was selling some products designed by the trans creator Erik Carnell’s brand Abprallen. What exactly was the issue? One of Abprallen’s products is a T-shirt with the slogan “Satan respects pronouns”. According to a statement issued by CPAC this obviously tongue-in-cheek joke meant Target had partnered “with a Satanic designer in promoting demonic paraphernalia”.The Satan T-shirt, it should be noted, wasn’t actually for sale at Target. According to the Daily Dot, the Abprallen merchandise stocked by Target for Pride consisted of an adult T-shirt with the slogan “cure transphobia, not trans people”, a bag featuring a rainbow and the caption “too queer for here”, and a fanny pack that reads “we belong here”. All of which had the folk at CPAC clutching their pearls in horror.It’s weird that they have the time to devote to this hate campaign, by the way, because the group has its own internal issues to deal with: Matt Schlapp, the head of CPAC, was recently accused of groping a male aide. “Matt Schlapp of the CPAC grabbed my junk and pummeled it at length,” his accuser said in a video. Schlapp has denied this, but his accuser is proceeding with a lawsuit seeking millions in damages for alleged sexual battery and defamation.As well as being shocked by phrases like “we belong here”, conservatives lost their collective minds over the fact that Target was selling a swimsuit geared towards trans women. “Did you know @Target also sells ‘tuck-friendly’ bathing suits for children in the Pride section? Well now you do,” a rightwing Twitter account with nearly 291,000 followers wrote. This was an outright lie: the swimsuit wasn’t for kids but that didn’t stop people melting down about it.“Melting down” is putting it lightly. Conservatives went a lot further than just getting angry online or organizing a boycott. “Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work,” Target said in a statement about the 2023 Pride collection. The threat to employees was so pronounced that Target has removed some of the Pride merchandise in response.Target was in a difficult position and needed to ensure its staff was kept safe. Still, it’s incredibly depressing to see big brands cave to violent intimidation campaigns. Conservatives have been very clear about what they want to achieve from all of this: they want to make corporations terrified to align themselves with the LGBTQ+ community ever again.“The goal is to make ‘Pride’ toxic for brands,” Matt Walsh, a rightwing commentator, tweeted last week. “If they decide to shove this garbage in our face, they should know that they’ll pay a price. It won’t be worth whatever they think they’ll gain. First Bud Light and now Target. Our campaign is making progress. Let’s keep it going.”Unfortunately, their hate campaign is still going strong. Last week, the Los Angeles Dodgers were bullied into disinviting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a drag charity group, from a Pride event. (The Dodgers then apologized and re-invited them.) Now the outdoor apparel company North Face seems to have become the latest target. The outdoor company has been accused of “preying” on children by having – wait for it because this is really shocking – kid-sized merchandise in rainbow colours. They also featured a drag queen in a Pride advert.North Face has so far refused to pander to the bigots and has stood beside the LGBTQ+ community. “We recognize the opportunity our brand has to shape the future of the outdoors and we want that future to be a more accepting and loving place,” the company wrote in a comment on its Pride post.I hope North Face stays steadfast, and that other companies follow its lead. Certainly brands need to have a plan in place for what happens when the rightwing mob comes for them. Because the mob will come for them: what’s happening right now isn’t just a bunch of bigots getting angry; it’s a coordinated intimidation campaign. I don’t think this can be stressed enough. The same people who go on about free speech are actively trying to shut others up. The people obsessed with cancel culture are trying to cancel anyone who isn’t like them.Companies can choose to stand with hate or they can choose to stand with love. Their LGBTQ+ consumers, and anyone who cares about equality, will be watching.
      Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist More