Yahoo – AFP,
17 February 2016
US sports equipment giant Nike on Wednesday axed Manny Pacquiao after he described gay couples as "worse than animals", slamming the Filipino boxer's remarks as "abhorrent."
US sports equipment giant Nike on Wednesday axed Manny Pacquiao after he described gay couples as "worse than animals", slamming the Filipino boxer's remarks as "abhorrent."
A Nike
statement said the company had severed its ties with Pacquiao, who triggered a
firestorm of controversy with his comments to a Filipino broadcaster earlier
this week.
"We
find Manny Pacquiao's comments abhorrent," a Nike statement said.
"Nike
strongly opposes discrimination of any kind and has a long history of
supporting and standing up for the rights of the LGBT community... we no longer
have a relationship with Manny Pacquiao."
Devout
Christian Pacquiao, 37, had issued an apology soon after the controversy
erupted.
"I'm
sorry for comparing homosexuals to animals. Please forgive me for those I've
hurt," Pacquiao said in a video post on Instagram, his arms crossed.
Pacquiao,
who is running for a seat in his country's Senate, said he was not condemning
homosexuals but was standing by his conservative Christian faith.
"I
love you all with the love of the Lord. I am praying for you."
Pacquiao
told television station TV5 earlier this week: "It's common sense. Do you
see animals mating with the same sex? Animals are better because they can
distinguish male from female."
"If men mate with men and women mate with women, they are worse than animals."
"If men mate with men and women mate with women, they are worse than animals."
Pacquiao's
comments were greeted with revulsion in the United States, where same-sex
marriage is enshrined in law following a historic Supreme Court ruling.
Jason
Collins, the first openly gay athlete in the NBA, dismissed Pacquiao as
"bigoted."
"I
lost all respect for you," Collins wrote on Twitter. "Bigoted people
like you (& yes you are one) should never hold an office in politics."
Pacquiao's
long-time rival Floyd Mayweather -- who outclassed the Filipino in their
money-spinning mega-fight last year -- also took aim at the remarks.
"We
should let people live their lives the way they want to live their lives. To
each his own," Mayweather was quoted by TMZ Sports as saying.
Gay
marriage is outlawed in the Philippines due to strong opposition from the
Catholic Church and 80 percent of the country's 100 million people subscribe to
the faith.
Gay
marriages are officiated at small churches but are not recognised by the
mainstream church or the state.
Pacquiao's
remarks angered some of his compatriots, with the country's most popular gay
comedian, Vice Ganda, urging his 6.7 million Twitter followers to
"#PrayForMannyPacquiao".
"Some
people think they can judge people, like God, just because they've attended a
prayer meeting and read the Bible," he said.
Singer Aiza
Seguerra, who recently married her actress-girlfriend, called on Filipino
voters to boycott Pacquiao, who is also preparing for his last boxing fight in
April, calling him an "ignorant, bigoted hypocrite".
"You
might have done our country proud but with your statement, you just showed the
whole country why we shouldn't vote for you," Seguerra said in a post on
Instagram.
Related Articles:
Philippines' Pacquiao apologises for comparing gays to animals
Question: Dear Kryon: Regarding homosexuality or transsexuals. WHY are they the way they are and WHY are they not accepted in mainstream society?
Answer: [From the Kryon Office]
There is often a tremendous amount of information on subjects that are not necessarily part of the on-line magazine Q&A database. Kryon has been channelling for fourteen years, with 9 books covering many, many topics. Homosexuality was one of them from the very beginning. Please see our "Books index page" for subjects contained in the Kryon books: [http://www.kryon.com/direct.html]
An excerpt from Kryon Book 6, page 306
Question from the book: Dear Kryon, I am gay, and an enlightened man. I live in an American society that barely tolerates me, and actually has some laws against my way of life. The church I used to belong to cast me out as being evil and anti-God. I don't feel that I am violating some Human ethic. My love is as true as any heterosexual, and I am a light worker. Tell me what I should know.
Answer from the book: Dear one, less than two generations from now, there will be those who find this book and laugh at the quaintness of this very question. Before I answer, let me ask you and those reading this to examine a phenomenon about Human society and "God."
Thirty years ago, interracial marriage was considered to be wrong by the laws of God. Now your society finds it common. The spiritual objections around it were either dropped or "rewritten" by those divinely inspired and authorized to do so. Therefore, your actual interpretations of the instructions from God changed with your society's tolerance level--an interesting thing, indeed, how the interpretations of God seem to change regularly to match a changing culture!
The truth, of course, is that you find yourself in a situation that is known to create a test for you. Right now, in this time, you have agreed to come into your culture with an attribute that may alienate you from friends and religious followers. You have faced fear of rejection and have had to "swim upstream," so to speak, just as an everyday life occurrence. Your contract, therefore, has been set up well, and you are in the middle of it. Additionally, like so many like you, you have a divine interest in yourselves! You feel part of the spiritual family. What a dichotomy indeed, to be judged as evil by those who are the high spiritual leaders--interpreting God for today's culture.
Now I say this: What is your intent? Is it to walk with love for all those around you and become an enlightened Human Being in this New Age? Is it to forgive those who see you as a spiritual blight on society? Can you have the kind of tolerance for them that they seem not to have for you? Can you overlook the fact that they freely quote their scriptures in order to condemn you, yet they don't seem to have the love tolerance that is the cornerstone of their own message?
If the answer is yes, then there is nothing else you must do. Your INTENT is everything, and your life will be honored with peace over those who would cause unrest, and tolerance for the intolerable. Your sexual attributes are simply chemistry and setups within your DNA. They are given by agreement as gifts for you to experience in this life. Look on them in this fashion, and be comfortable with that fact that you are a perfect spiritual creation under God--loved beyond measure--just like all humans. But then you know that, don't you?
"The Akashic Circle" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, The Humanization of God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)
“… Gender Switching
Old souls, let me tell you something. If you are old enough, and many of you are, you have been everything. Do you hear me? All of you. You have been both genders. All of you have been what I will call between genders, and that means that all of you have had gender switches. Do you know what happens when it's time for you to switch a gender? We have discussed it before. You'll have dozens of lifetimes as the same gender. You're used to it. It's comfortable. You cannot conceive of being anything else, yet now it's time to change. It takes approximately three lifetimes for you to get used to it, and in those three lifetimes, you will have what I call "gender confusion."
Old souls, let me tell you something. If you are old enough, and many of you are, you have been everything. Do you hear me? All of you. You have been both genders. All of you have been what I will call between genders, and that means that all of you have had gender switches. Do you know what happens when it's time for you to switch a gender? We have discussed it before. You'll have dozens of lifetimes as the same gender. You're used to it. It's comfortable. You cannot conceive of being anything else, yet now it's time to change. It takes approximately three lifetimes for you to get used to it, and in those three lifetimes, you will have what I call "gender confusion."
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