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2010 has not been the best year for the golden girl of the pool, Stephanie Rice. Injury has seen her form slump and ultimately seen her miss the Commonwealth Games in order to prevent her having a bad run into the 2012 Olympics. And now this week, the use of the word “faggot” on Twitter has cost her dearly.
What Stephanie Rice said (suck on this fa****s) was an irresponsible comment no matter who she was referring to – gay or straight (the fa****s were the Springboks). However, the way this has been handled and portrayed has been an absolute disgrace.
I know Stephanie Rice as well as gay rights advocate Ian Roberts. So to answer The Roar community, I don’t know if she is homophobic or not. However, when people like Matthew Mitcham (a gay athlete) publicly says she is not a homophobic person, I am more inclined to believe him over Roberts.
When Ian Roberts looks back on the issue, I hope he has a good long hard look at himself. Roberts has handled himself disgracefully in this issue, with his hysterical rants that do not help his cause. While he was right to brand Rice “a complete idiot”, he was 100 per cent wrong to call for all sponsors to dump her and in the same breath call her homophobic along with anyone or company who supported her.
Who gives him the right to determine who is homophobic without actually providing any proof?
I should mention in this article I am strongly against homophobia in society. People who are this are complete idiots with no sense. However, homophobia (which is a fear of homosexuals) is like branding some a “racist”. Ian Roberts cannot throw this word around like confetti because it’s a nasty slur. To call Rice homophobic, Roberts has to prove she is scared and hates homosexuals. On his soapbox this week, Roberts failed to do this and in the process placed an unfair slur on someone who may never recover.
But in the end Rice will have learned the biggest lesson: Twitter is a killer. Rice has lost a Jaguar sponsorship because of tweeting an irrational random thought.
Rice is a public figure and her comments inspire people. Her Tweets must be rational and thought-out otherwise she will be in deep end again.