Ozzie Guillen, manager of baseball's Chicago White Sox, recently made statements that have been interpreted as anti-gay.
Outsports.com reported that Guillen had just finished an interview at New York's Yankee Stadium with several reporters when he saw a longtime friend and yelled: 'Hey, everybody, this guy's a homosexual! He's a child molester!'
The site reported that the man did not seem to take offense, and that both men hugged. Two days later, Guillen said to the Chicago Tribune that he has 'no problem with [ homosexuals ] . I don't deal with that. To me, everybody's the same. We're human beings created by God.'
In addition, according to Dave Buscema, a columnist with the Times-Herald Record in New York, Guillen had 'called outfielder Tadahito Iguchi 'queer,' jokingly saying he should want to go out with one of [ a group of female Japanese reporters ] .'
The site analyzed the statements by saying it 'would like to think Guillen meant no offense and he did said he needs to be careful with his words. [ However, ] equating gay people to child molesters is one of the biggest slurs [ homosexuals ] have faced and Guillen is at least guilty of gross insensitivity. … [ Regarding the Iguchi situation, ] 'queer' is also offensive and adds to the sense that Guillen thinks making fun of gay people is humorous and acceptable.'