Did Cam Newton’s 10 questions about a rapper’s gay dad go too far?
Cam Newton asked a rapper several questions about his gay dad. Did the former NFL star go too far, or was it just right? The post Did Cam Newton’s 10 questions about a rapper’s gay dad go too far? appeared first on Outsports.
Mark
While there have been several NFL players to come out as gay or bi after their playing careers were over — and a couple did while still active — that doesn’t mean professional football athletes in general are super familiar with gay culture.
Former NFL MVP Cam Newton is one of them, or at least that’s how he appears in a recent interview.
Newton hosts the “Funky Friday Podcast” and interviewed rapper Fredo Bang on a recent episode of his show. One particular section of the interview created a small stir on Instagram.
Bang talks about being 12 years old and finding out that his father was gay. Newton found this information incredibly fascinating and probed Bang further on how that changed his relationship with his dad and how this revelation may be seen in a new light years later, now that Bang is 29 years old.
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“When you have unconditional love for somebody, especially someone like that, it’s almost like there’s nothing you can tell me that will make me look at you differently,” Bang said.
Newton asked if Bang looks at his father differently now that he’s an adult, to which the rapper said, “No. That’s my dad.”
Some people on Instagram thought that Newton’s line of questioning was excessive. He followed up with several more questions, ranging from whether Bang’s father is dating a man right now to whether being gay was a phase.
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During a moment of frustration, Carl Nassib found out that his peers were allies even before they knew he was gay.
Newton’s job is to ask questions and learn about his guests’ lives. There shouldn’t be an uproar over curiosity, even if it is a little shocking how foreign the concept of gay people living their lives is to some sections of society.
The only part that was possibly concerning in the interview was when Bang responded to Newton’s question about whether he had any identity issues stemming from his father’s sexuality. Bang says, “he’s not flamboyant (Bang’s father). He’s not dressing up like a woman and all that crazy ****”.
This is ironic since Bang is being interviewed by one of the more flamboyant dressers in NFL history — Cam Newton.
Feminine gay men aren’t any less for dressing the way they do, and the response crosses over into transphobia and gender identity ignorance to a degree.
Newton acknowledges at the end of the clip that he’s not around a lot of LGBTQ people, and this obviously feels like a pretty truthful claim. Men’s football has a pretty heteronormative culture.
Unless you put yourself in places where there are a lot of gay, bi and trans people, you’re not going to be able to understand certain parts of the culture. Newton’s interview with Bang can be viewed as a tad ignorant, but a pretty harmless couple of minutes.
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The post Did Cam Newton’s 10 questions about a rapper’s gay dad go too far? appeared first on Outsports.
