Boxing
LGBT group drops anti-Pacquiao Nike petition: ‘Author was misleading’
AFP file photo
A group advocating marriage equality has suspended its petition for Nike to drop Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao from its list of endorsers after clarification about his comments on members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
Gay Marriage USA earlier advocated for the athletic wear company because of Pacquiao’s supposed comments in an inteview with blogger Granville Ampong encouraging violence against LGBT members, particularly quoting the Bible passage Leviticus 20:13 that promoted violence on their members, which read: “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”
But Ampong clarified in a follow-up blog post that he wasn’t quoting Pacquiao, and he wrote that passage himself.
“The author (Granville Ampong) of the original article that created this Pacquiao uproar has now written a new article stating that the boxer never actually said that gays should be “put to death” – that is, the author’s writing was woefully misleading!” wrote Gay Marriage USA to explain the suspension of the petition.
The group also linked to a piece by the LGBT advocacy blog The New Civil Rights movement that took to task Ampong’s article.
“Ampong, in addition to being a terrible writer, now is blaming other journalists for his poor journalism skills, which frankly is embarrassing and offensive,” wrote David Badash on the blog.
“Bottom line: Pacquiao did not say gays ‘must be put to death,’ Ampong just wrote it that way.”
In an interview with GMA-7′s Chino Trinidad, Pacquiao said that he never spouted any Bible verses in his interview with Ampong. The boxer added that he could not have quoted Leviticus, an Old Testament verse, because his ongoing Bible studies were focused on the New Testament.
