ESPN commentator Curt Schilling fired after sharing offensive Facebook post against transgender people
The former baseball player turned sports analyst said a man’s bathroom was ‘designed for the penis, women’s not so much’.
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Your support makes all the difference.ESPN has fired its most famous baseball analyst Curt Schilling after he shared and commented on a Facebook post which discriminated against transgender people.
The broadcasting network said it was “an inclusive company” and dismissed the former All-Star baseball pitcher as his behaviour was not “acceptable”.
The Facebook post, which has since been deleted on Mr Schilling’s page, showed a man in a wig with a ripped dress beside the words: “Let him in! To the restroom with your daughter or else you’re a narrow minded, judgmental, unloving, racist bigot who needs to die!!”
Mr Schilling also commented on the post, as reported by The Huffington Post, “A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic.”
A statement from ESPN said: “Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated.”
“To be in a place where people actually believe I’m a racist or I’m transphobic says to me that something has gone horribly askew somewhere,” he told the hosts on WEEI radio on Wednesday.
The former host of ESPN’s “ Sunday Night Baseball” also wrote in his blog that people are “dying to be offended”.
“This latest brew ha ha is beyond hilarious. I didn’t post that ugly looking picture. I made a comment about the basic functionality of mens and womens [sic] restrooms, period,” he said.
Mr Schilling was suspended for a month after he posted a comment on Twitter that compared radical Muslims to Nazis.
The meme shared by Mr Schilling perpetuates the myth that allowing transgender people to access bathrooms not assigned to their birth gender would endanger other people entering the bathroom.
Presidential candidate Ted Cruz, referring to the so-called bathroom bill, said to fans on Thursday: “Have we gone stark raving nuts?”
“We should not let men into bathrooms with little girls,” he said to the cheering crowd.
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