Tony Dungy against same-sex marriage

According to the Indianapolis Star:

Colts coach Tony Dungy said he knows some people would prefer him to steer clear of the gay marriage debate, but he used a speech Tuesday night to clearly stake out his position.

Dungy told more than 700 people at the Indiana Family Institute’s banquet that he agrees with that organization’s position supporting a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.

“I appreciate the stance they’re taking, and I embrace that stance,” Dungy said.

Dungy’s comments came in the final three minutes of a wide-ranging, 20-minute speech that recounted stories from the Colts’ Super Bowl run, related his interest in prison ministry and described how he wondered whether his firing in Tampa was God’s signal for him to leave football and enter ministry. He also talked about his efforts to make the Colts more family-friendly by encouraging players to bring their kids to practice.

Local and national gay-rights organizations had criticized Dungy for accepting the invitation to appear at the banquet. The institute, affiliated with Focus on the Family, has been one of the leading supporters of the marriage amendment.

“IFI is saying what the Lord says,” Dungy said. “You can take that and make your decision on which way you want to be. I’m on the Lord’s side.”

The coach said his comments shouldn’t be taken as gay bashing, but rather his views on the matter as he sees them from a perspective of faith.

“We’re not anti- anything else. We’re not trying to downgrade anyone else. But we’re trying to promote the family — family values the Lord’s way,” Dungy said.

Previous IFI banquets had drawn at most 440 guests, according to organizers. But the appearance of the Super Bowl-winning coach to receive the institute’s “Friend of the Family” award set a record.

Sorry, Tony – this is gay bashing. Basically the textbook definition of it. And even if you’re are claiming to only be concerned with the marriage issue – Indiana Family Institute is not just concerned with that. They say they are, but they have written and supported legislation in the past that went far beyond concerns about marriage. IFI was responsible for a draft of state legislation proposing to quarantine gay men and lesbians in camps to ‘protect against HIV and AIDS’ in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Note, they weren’t talking about rounding up just people who had AIDS (although that legislation DID get passed) – they wanted to pull in all groups they considered ‘at risk’ and they felt all gay men and lesbians fit that category. Yeah… logic escaped them. This draft of the bill was quickly suppressed, but not before a copy of it made its way to the gay community by alarmed folks who read it.

This is the group that Tony Dungy is raising money for.

No Colts

This Post Has 12 Comments

  1. Jay

    Amen, Steph. If I had Colts gear, I’d be dumping it off in front of the RCA Dome today with a letter voicing my disgust. Better yet, driving out to the Colts Complex and giving it back to the company that employs this bigot.

  2. Tami

    Oh Steph, how I do enjoy your site….you brighten my day! I too loved the Colts, until now. Screw Dungy-God fearing dumb ass.

  3. mike

    If that’s his view, he is entitled to it.

    However…

    He’s brought the entire Colts organization into it. Not only did the event use the Colts Logo in their advertising, but Colts merchandise was donated for a charitable auction. And of course, he wouldn’t have been invited to speak were he not at least tacitly representing them.

    I’m off to deface my Colts jersey in preparation of sending it back to him.

  4. Eliza

    umm guys, burn all your colts gear?? come on now. I suppose you think all Republicans hate gays because Bush does? ( of course maybe they do but you get the point)

    Dislike Dungy but don’t push off that dislike on the rest of the colts.. you are doing exactly what those you speak against do to you
    the colts were here before Dungy and will be here after he is gone someday.

    For the record I am severly disappointed and sorry he is misguided but his ignorance does not make he like Harrison, Manning or Sanders any less.

  5. Hawthorn Mineart

    Yes, I’ll be burning all my Colts gear – and the Colts are equally to blame – the sports franchise donated items to the Indiana Family Institute to be auctioned off to raise funds to promote SJR-7 – a public statement of support for the bigotted amendment from the Colts franchise.

  6. Jay

    Steph’s right. The Colts and the NFL allowed Dungy to auction their merchandise in order to help Dungy raise money for the IFI. $20,000 is no small sum raised by a group that openly hates an entire group of law-abiding, tax-paying Americans. The Colts and the NFL have dirtied their hands and people have every right to be pissed at them.

  7. Melissa

    I stumbled across your site in a search for SJR7. Very interesting…and sad. You show so much hatred toward a man who shows no hatred toward you. You are only precieving it that way because you want to. I am not aware of a web-site with postings about hatred toward Rosie O’Donnel or Ellen Degeneres for their support of gay rights (I could be wrong though). Why do you all have to be so hateful? The majority of people don’t hate you or the sin of homosexulity. We ALL sin in one way or anoter. No sin is worse than another in the eyes of the Lord. People like Tony and myself just love the Lord and all of His people including every one of you. They want to support God’s word. God’s word says nothing about hating you all. If you asked Tony, he would say the same thing.
    I wish you all could lead more joyful lives and stop fighting all the time. Just live, love (who ever you choose) and be happy. All this negativity can’t make you happy.
    I don’t plan to come back to this site so hate responses aimed at me will do you no good.

  8. Scott

    Melissa–
    I’d encourage you to stick around here and read this site for a while, maybe then you’ll understand what it’s like to be on our side.

    “This negativity” you mention does NOT make us happy. And yet when Christians and politicians continue to come after us in various ways — trying to deny our rights to love and protect our families, denying us equal healthcare, taxation, and inheritance benefits, trying to deny our rights to adopt children, asking us to leave your churches, etc. — what are we supposed to do?

    Have you ever seen a single gay person protesting outside a church? And yet you can’t find a gay pride event in which there aren’t Christians protesting us.

    For what it’s worth, I had no intention of “marrying” my partner until Christians a few years ago started saying that I shouldn’t be allowed to. Why do you think our capacity to love our families is less than yours? It’s rather a pious opinion, if you ask me.

    And please know that I am not attacking you, personally, or your beliefs, collectively. No one wishes to change your beliefs or your families or what goes on in your churches. We just want to be allowed to live our lives in peace and without religious and political persecution.

    Please come back to this site and find others like it and try to imagine what it’s like from the other side. Please do that.

  9. Jay

    Melissa, I’m Scott’s partner. Let me tell you a little story: In 1991 I was attacked by Christian students at Anderson University for being out and honest. Several Christian young men decided it would be fun to teach the “faggot” a lesson by terrorizing me for weeks and months, throwing things at me, and assualting me on several occasions. What did the Christian school do to these Christian men? Nothing.

    I want to live my life and be left alone, but Christians think they have a right to run my life. Scott’s right: when was the last time gays protested outside of your church? Name one time a Christian was violently bashed by a gang of gays?

    Oh and Rosie/Ellen-hating sites? Start reading conservative blogs. Conservatives HATE Rosie with a passion. You think gays are hateful? Read the comments left by fellow conservatives on conservative blogs.

    Not coming back to this site to read responses is passive-aggressive and cowardly.

  10. Hawthorn Mineart

    Melissa: I’ve been honest about my sexual orientation for over 20 years now. I’m not at all fooled by your rhetoric. You can wrap your hate and bigotry up in words of love and compassion, but i still recognize it for what it is.

    I know that the current spin job from the religious right is to couch everything in terms of “we love you; we just are so sad that you’re a sinner” – I know this because I’m on the fundy mailing lists that tell people how to craft messages like your comment – mailing lists that don’t bother to hide their real feelings of hate.

    I also know that in the 20 years I’ve been “out of the closet” I’ve suffered real violence at the hands of people just like you. I was raped by a man who tried to convince me he was doing to save my soul, and quoted bible verses while he did it — so I’m sorry, but I don’t buy your utter bullshit.

  11. Melissa

    I guess my curiousity got the best of me and I am back. I knew there would be replies to my comments. Glad to see I am not passive-agressive nor a coward.

    Scott and Jay, I appreciate your sincere, kind, and very personal comments. I am very, very sorry that you have been treated so poorly by people who claim to be Christians. Obviously those who treated you so poorly were not strong in their faith and I am certain if those individuals are truely Christians they have grown since that incident and I know they feel shame and guilt for that. I have not always been a Christian and I feel such guilt for my behavior as a teenager. God has forgiven my sins and I can go on.

    My previous comment purposely used the term “most” because I know there are some very evil people in this world that treat honosexuals very poorly and I am so very sorry for that. You are all people just like us. I, personally, have nothing against you all or the lives you choose to live. My beliefs are firmly in line whith what I know from the Bible when it comes to marriage. I am sorry that the “side efftects” of this SJR7 effect your lives in ways other than not being allowed to “marry”. I truely want you all to be happy. I think you would be happier if you just stopped fighting. We don’t always get our “way” in this world and most people manage to find a way to be happy.

    Steph, I want you to know that nothing I said was scripted. That is the honest truth. Everything I said came from ME. I made no hateful comments in my reply and yet you still found a way to be rude back to me. You are also confusing conservatives for Christians. Not every conservative is a Christian and not every Christian is a conservative. Steph, I will pray for you.

    Our comments are now all “Off Topic”. I apoligize for taking us down that road on the Colts article site.

  12. Hawthorn Mineart

    Melissa, I’m sorry you think I was rude. I wasn’t any more rude than you were. You may not believe or understand it, but you absolutely were, and it ways that are far more than I was. Calling an innate biological characteristic of mine a sin is way out of bounds. So is trying to tell me how to live my life.

    You may not realize how ugly and awful your first comment was – I hope you can start to now.

    I am quite happy – I’m in a wonderful, loving relationship with an amazing, beautiful woman. I understand how rare and lucky I am, which is why I get pissy when people come along and try to tell me that my life is sad and that theres something wrong with my relationship – which you did in your first post.

    You can pray for me if you like – I’m already very blessed, though, and would urge you to pray for people who aren’t as fortunate as I. I’ll certainly pray for you as well – that you realize how rude and intrusive your beliefs and Dungy’s are into the lives of others.

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