Roland Martin's Beckham Tweet Sees Gay Activists Call for Resignation
Gay rights activists are calling for the resignation of CNN news analyst Roland Martin after a series of tweets were sent from him during the Super Bowl on Sunday.
About halfway through the Super Bowl, Martin sent a tweet that made fun of the black-and-white commercial that showed David Beckham wearing only his underwear: "Ain't no real bruhs going to H&M to buy some damn David Beckham underwear!" read the one of the tweets.
After the H&M commercial featuring Beckham aired, Martin again wrote on Twitter: "If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham's H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him!"
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In response, the gay rights group GLAAD wrote: "@rolandsmartin Advocates of gay bashing have no place at @CNN #SuperBowl #LGBT"
And then the perpetual back-and-forth ensued.
Martin replied: "@glaad @CNN well you're clearly out of touch and clueless with what I tweeted. Way to assume, but you're way off base."
This colorful exchange only fanned the flames further with no real resolution coming forth.
GLAAD has since released a statement stating : "Martin's tweets today advocating violence against gay people weren't an accident, they are a part of a larger pattern for Martin. Anti-gay violence in America is a serious problem facing millions of Americans. It's no joke. CNN should fire Roland Martin."
Martin inevitably replied: "I made several cracks about soccer as I do all the time. I was not referring to sexuality directly or indirectly regarding the David Beckham ad, and I'm sorry folks took it otherwise."
The statement continued, "It was meant to be a deliberately over the top and sarcastic crack about soccer; I do not advocate violence of any kind against anyone gay, or not."
