Arts & Entertainment

NBA referee reveals he’s gay

ref comes out after suspension incident

Published

8 years ago

December 15, 2015

Mariah Cooper

(Screenshot courtesy of YouTube)

NBA referee Bill Kennedy announced he’s gay in a statement made to Yahoo Sports on Sunday.

“I am proud to be an NBA referee and I am proud to be a gay man,” Kennedy says. “I am following in the footsteps of others who have self-identified in the hopes that will send a message to young men and women in sports that you must allow no one to make you feel ashamed of who you are.”

Kennedy’s announcement comes just days after Sacramento Kings’ guard Rajon Rondo was suspended from a a Dec. 3 game between the Kings and Celtics in Mexico City.

Kennedy gave a technical foul to Rondo in the third quarter. Rondo walked over to talk to Kennedy and Kennedy issued him a second technical foul causing Rondo to be ejected from the game.

The official game report states that Rondo was using homophobic slurs when speaking with Kennedy after being ejected from the game. Kennedy and fellow referee Ben Taylor recounted the slur that Rondo used.

“You’re a mother———- faggot. … You’re a f——— faggot, Billy,” Rondo is documented saying.

National Basketball Referee’s Association general counsel Lee Seham also revealed in the report that Bennie Adams, a third official, “affirmed that Rondo aggressively pursued referee Bill Kennedy and had to be restrained by teammates and escorted off the floor by Sacramento team security.”

The NBA released a statement saying Rondo was suspended for “directing a derogatory and offensive term towards a game official and not leaving the court in a timely manner.”

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More than 1 million people attend Madonna concert in Rio

Free event took place on Copacabana Beach on Saturday

Published

6 hours ago

May 6, 2024

Michael K. Lavers

Madonna performs on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach on May 4, 2024. (Screen capture via Reuters YouTube)

An estimated 1.6 million people on Saturday attended Madonna’s free concert on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach.

The concert, which was the last one as part of Madonna’s Celebration Tour, included a tribute to people lost to AIDS.

Bob the Drag Queen introduced Madonna before the concert began. Pabllo Vittar, a Brazilian drag queen and singer, and Anitta, a bisexual pop star who was born in Rio’s Honório Gurgel neighborhood, also joined Madonna on stage.

Congresswoman Erika Hilton, a Black travesti and former sex worker, and Rio Municipal Councilwoman Mônica Benício, the widow of Marielle Franco, a bisexual Rio Municipal Councilwoman who was assassinated in 2018, are among those who attended the concert.

“Madonna showed that we fight important fights for the human rights of Black (people), young (people), women and LGBTQIA+ people, and against all injustice, discrimination, and violence,” said Associaçao Nacional de Travestis e Transexuais (National Association of Travestis and Transsexuals), a Brazilian trans rights group known by the acronym ANTRA, on its X account. “What they call identitarianism’ is our subversion to the retrograde and conservative tackiness that plagues the country.”

The Associated Press reported the concert was Madonna’s biggest ever.

Photos

PHOTOS: Gay Day at the Zoo

Smithsonian observs International Family Equality Day

Published

1 day ago

May 5, 2024

Michael Key

Gay Day at the Zoo (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The DC Center for the LGBTQ Community, SMYAL and Rainbow Families sponsored Gay Day at the Zoo on Sunday at the Smithsonian National Zoo. The Smithsonian observed International Family Equality Day with special exhibits and an event space.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)