DAYS OF LOT: Vikings host ‘LGBTQ summit’ to promote ‘inclusion’ in sports
The event will include speeches, interviews, and panel discussions with a variety of athletes, coaches, and activists who are homosexual or transgender, CBS 4 reported when the event was originally announced last month. It will be hosted at the team’s recently-completed TCO Performance Center.
Kluwe will be one of the speakers, as will LGBT SportSafe co-founder Nevin Caple, Olympic diver and LGBT activist Greg Louganis, transgender Team USA sprinter Chris Mosier, Vanderbilt University women’s basketball coach Stephanie White, and more.
"I am thrilled to join the Minnesota Vikings in June to promote inclusion and respect for LGBTQ athletes,” Mosier added.
But despite the promotional quotes’ positive vibes, the event is actually part of a settlement agreement the Vikings made after Kluwe, who is straight, filed a lawsuit against the team in 2014 for allegedly creating a hostile work environment for homosexual and transgender people. The Vikings agreed to donate $10,000 to pro-LGBT charities, increased sensitivity training, and promised to promote LGBT inclusion in sports.
“Various events like this have taken place in the past, including Nike’s LGBT Sports Summit, Rainbow Laces Summit hosted by Manchester United, and countless programs hosted by the NCAA and colleges across the country,” SB Nation reported in May. “Yet this is the first time an NFL team has stepped up to the plate in this specific way.”
“Sports and music should not turn into sin propaganda machines,” said Steve McConkey, president of the Christian athletes ministry 4 Winds USA. “People need a hobby and temporary escape from the world’s problems. They do not want to hear about their team promoting particular sins. What sin will they have a summit for next?”
“It's a situation where they're going to have a summit and discuss how they can further the agenda inside the NFL,” McConkey told One News Now. He noted that “Minneapolis is a very liberal center, and I think what happened is these pro teams are trying to please certain individuals in society.”
The summit is only the latest example of the nation’s leading sports institutions promoting homosexuality.
Last summer, the NFL launched NFL Pride, an LGBT “affinity group” meant to heighten homosexual and transgender “sensitivity” and “inclusion.” The majority of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) teams have similarly promoted the LGBT cause, and in 2016 the National Basketball Association (NBA) boycotted the state of North Carolina over its law allowing businesses to restrict bathrooms to members of the same sex.
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