Baseball coach empathises with LGBT community after making homophobic comments - Australia Gay News Network

A baseball cash who made homophobic comments has been made to work with LGBT groups to educate himself and others about homophobia. Sean McKinney, a baseball coach at Colorado Mesa College made the comments several years ago. He said is an apparent boast about his home state that in Wyoming, “We kill gay people.”

The incident became public after a former player, Tyler Dunnington, came forward.

McKinney is now working with Colorado Mesa University and LGBT groups to make sure no gay or lesbian athlete ever has to hear homophobic language on campus again.

While Dunnington did not name McKinney personally an investigation led to McKinney. The coach admitted to making the comment and apologised publicly.

He told Outsports:

"As the story spread and more stuff was revealed, it got really tough this week.

"I'm forever in debt to the people in this university and my friends and family. They know my true character. Some of that is in question, obviously, because of what's gone on with Tyler's story. But I would never harm anyone on our team. This week I'm sure this has been questions about how I feel about Tyler. I hope he's OK. I called him this morning to apologize. I want him to have a good life."

Outsports reports that the school will not fire McKinney, but will ‘move towards increased understanding of LGBT issues’.

McKinney said he had learned a lot from meeting with LGBT groups:

"I feel so much empathy. The stories that I've listened to about them coming out and how tough it's been, and the gut-wrenching feeling they've had, is similar to the feeling I've had this week. I want to help them. I want to help raise awareness not just for our team but for our campus."

Author Rachel Cook