Still Stirrin' Shit Up

On Thursday I wrote a piece called "WTF is up with "Gay Sports?" where I went off on a tangent about how I hated sports as a kid and still do. I got some positive feedback from friends who read it, so I submitted it to The Bilerco Project for a guest post when I got home from work on Thursday night.

When Friday came and went and I hadn't heard back from Bilerico's editors, I figured they either didn't like it or didn't have room for it in their weekend edition.

Saturday morning I checked Bilerico.com from work, just to see if maybe they had posted it. I was thrilled to find that they had, especially when I noticed that my picture was larger than those of other contributors. But something wasn't quite right. The paragraphs had been rearranged, giving the article a disjointed and somewhat psychotic tone.

Not only that, but the comments were overwhelmingly negative as gay jocks raked me over the coals and universally panned my work.

One reader wrote:

"I am just amazed at the amount of messed up assumptions. I can see the comedic touch but are you kidding me? Wow."

Another wrote:

"This is really all negative with only a touch of comedy, c'mon lighten up dude."

The one that really got to me was directed to Bilerico's founder, Bil Browning:

"Bad call Bill, even being willing to publish this pile. Should have been shoveled out of the stalls while it was still steaming."

As usual for a Saturday morning at "Shminko's", I was alone until my mid-shift coworker showed up and there was nothing I could do about it.

As soon as I got home, I sent an e-mail the Bilerico's weekend editor, Dana Rudolph of Mombian.com, and asked about the way the article looked. Dana wrote back and apologized, saying her editing software has screwed it up or possibly that she had mixed things up in the cut and paste process.

Dana quickly fixed the problem and to my relief, the tone of the comments changed:

"I thought it was pretty funny. I was never any good at sports either."

"Rev Steve .. Just a note to say that I loved your entry!"

"Finally! Someone actually says out loud what a great number of us (not all, mind you) think about the obsession with sports..."

Bil Browning himself posted the following comments:

"Pshaw. Sports suck. Give me a book, the internet or even yard work any day of the week before organized sports.

But - wow - how many folks were irritated by this post. It's not that deep; it's just comedy making fun of stereotypes. I'm thinking Steve hit a nerve... Still, it's interesting to see how many of our sporting brethren are up in arms and how few of us are in here admitting we've got no interest in sports either. I assumed the post would get a bunch "You tell 'em," or "Amen, sister!" comments and that would be it. LOL

Goes to show you what I know, eh?"

A big thanks goes out to Bil and Dana for giving me another shot. They seem to like my work, so I'll keep sending articles for as long as they want to keep posting them.