Jarren Duran isn’t really sorry he called a fan an anti-gay slur. In fact, as long as there were no cameras, he’d probably do it again.
That’s the takeaway from Duran’s press conference on Monday, after he had been suspended by the Boston Red Sox — in conjunction with MLB — for two games. The measly suspension was a slap in the face of the gay community.
Now many homophobic baseball fans and others are buying up his jerseys and flooding social media to offer support.
Duran took another slap at the community in his presser, wearing a shirt that said “F*ck ‘Em” to the event. He also, according to reports including a great column by Steve Buckley of The Athletic, didn’t take ownership of using hate speech, but just said he shouldn’t have said the word.
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Buckley pointed out that Duran said he didn’t recognize the word, and that there was no intent behind it. Buckley also pointed to how the Red Sox are trying to cover for their player, consistently referring to the 27-year-old in his seventh season in pro baseball as a “kid.”
“It would also serve Duran well to grow up a little,” Buckley wrote. “He’s not a kid anymore.”
Does anyone believe at this point that Duran considered a single word of the “apology” his team released on his behalf Sunday night?
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MLB and Red Sox 2-game suspension of Jarren Duran for anti-gay hate speech is a slap in the face of the gay community
Jarren Duran directed cruel anti-gay hate speech at a fan during a game. MLB gave him an absurdly small suspension for it.
By Cyd Zeigler | August 12, 2024
Duran’s anti-gay hate speech, and his ensuing middle finger to everybody who didn’t like it, has inspired a wave of homophobes to attack the gay community and support their new poster child.
Despite the effort, Duran’s jersey hadn’t cracked the Top-20 on MLBShop.com by Tuesday morning. Still, it was sitting at the No. 1 spot of all Red Sox players (it was already probably pretty high last week). Right now, Duran jerseys sold out in Large, 3XL and 4XL.
Yes, people are spending hundreds of dollars to show their support for anti-gay hate speech, in the form of buying a baseball jersey. They did the same thing with Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker when he spewed homophobia and sexism earlier this year.
To be sure, jersey sales of gay athletes — like Michael Sam and Carl Nassib — also spike when they come out. It works both ways.
Online, the anti-gay comments are brutal. Since Duran used the anti-gay F-bomb, he’s empowered others to do the same, both online and in private. I’ve received numerous emails and messages myself, each one cruel and deeply homophobic.
Just look at the over-the-top adoration he is receiving on his Instagram page, all for yelling anti-gay hate speech. The support is even from Yankees fans.
I can take it. I’ve been writing on homophobia in sports for 25 years. There’s nothing these cruel people can send my way that I haven’t seen dozens of times before.
Yet there are gay players and others in baseball who are being pushed by all of this deeper into the closet. That’s the intention, of course. These homophobes have a mixture of hatred for others’ differences, in addition to self-loathing about their own sexual orientation, they need to take out on others.
They want the gay community to go away. Thankfully, we never will — Though their efforts to silence gay athletes will certainly bear fruit.
When Duran returns from his ridiculously small suspension, he’ll likely get loud cheers from a portion of the Fenway faithful. Fittingly, that game will be at home against the Texas Rangers, the only MLB team that refuses to host an LGBTQ Pride Night.
