I'm not homophobic...

...I'm going to the Gay Games. That's the rationale of White Sox coach Ozzie Guillen who called journalist Jay Mariotti a fag last week, took a lot of flak for epithet, then issued a non-apology, received more flak and is now claiming he can't be homophobic because he plans on going to the Gay Games next month in Chicago. MLB has fined Guillen (an undisclosed amount) and is making him take sensitivity training classes. Come on--he's going to the Gay Games--can't that count as his sensitivity training? Some kind of transfer credits.
I'm not a homophobe because I am going to the Gay Games is similar to the hackneyed rationale offered by white folks that "I'm not a racist; I have black friends." A problematic rationale in itself that refuses to see racism at the structural level or acknowledge and account for the invisible system of white privilege. To make it more analagous to Guillen's situation though that rationale would be given by someone who unapologetically throws around the n-word. To make it worse the Gay Games is just one argument for Guillen who also notes that he has gay friends and goes to WNBA games--um--what is he saying with this? Oh yeah--and he likes Madonna.
We don't need someone like Guillen at the Gay Games, or at the WNBA or even at a Madonna concert. I wish he would just stay home. Of course maybe he won't be able to attend now that he has to squeeze in those sensitivity training classes.