A bill that would legalize professional mixed martial arts in New York State has been approved but not without some colorful arguments.
The bill would allow MMA events in the biggest media market in the nation. Most MMA fans would heave a sigh of relief at the decision but would cringe at the accusations hurled by the opponents of the bill, as recounted by USA Today.
"I thought I should learn a little bit about (MMA)," said Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell (D-Manhattan), who is gay. "Well, I should really like it. You have two nearly naked, hot men trying to dominate each other. That's gay porn with a different ending."
O'Donnell is the brother of actress Rosie O'Donnell, and he concluded his remarks saying that he would "take a cold shower" and continued to hope that New York would ban the sport.
Other remarks had State Assemblyman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) comparing MMA to the "savagery of slavery" and "police brutality."
"You know how we feel about the chokehold in New York City," Barron said. "You can put him in a chokehold and the ref has to be determining whether he got choked enough or she got choked enough. This (sport) is not something we should legalize or regulate."
Barron was referring to the case of Eric Garner who died in a chokehold by police officers. The incident happened in Staten Island in 2014.
Still, the bill has been approved and while the violence was the main reason for opposing the bill, the gay accusation has been around since the sport was emerging.
As early as 2009, The Daily Beast ran an article on how Mixed Martial Arts had a growing gay fanbase.
"Gay bloggers, homophobic critics of MMA, and even straight fans have declared that one of the great appeals of the sport is its homoeroticism, TDB's Thaddeus Russell wrote. "They note the large number of gay men and straight women who have become fans of MMA and attribute it to the appeal of the nearly-naked hard bodies of the fighters and the intimate, often pelvic techniques of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the favored grappling discipline in the sport."
Most of the sports accusers came from the sport of professional boxing. In the article, they quoted Bob Arum, owner of Top Rank promotions who handles some of the sports' biggest names like Manny Pacquiao. He described MMA fighters as "guys rolling around like homosexuals on the ground."
Even Bernard Hopkins, one of the most decorated boxers, took a shot as he called MMA "grown men with panties on, sweating, [with] nuts in their face. . . . It's a porno. It's an entertainment porno."
Despite those remarks, MMA has challenged Boxing as the premiere fighting sport. With the bill's approval, MMA events could be held in Madison Square Garden, one of the most memorable boxing venues.
MMA has already gained mainstream acceptance even as there would still be critics calling it "gay." But with the current trend of acceptance towards the LGBT community, MMA being gay shouldn't matter at all.