Rugby player, trainer, and former Australian bobsledder Simon Dunn responded with anger on Friday to a homophobic meme that bears his photo, after he found it passed along in his Twitter feed.
The meme featured Dunn’s face next to a list of traits describing “gay people that I respect.” Those traits included “acts like a normal human being; has a personality; doesn’t force upon you the fact that they’re gay; literally is a normal person that you can be friends with.”
The list was contrasted with another list of traits describing “gay people I do not respect” and is clearly intended to divide.
Dunn blasted the meme, tweeting “Don’t use my image for your internalised homophobia, don’t make assumptions on the kind of gay man I am or the kind of gay men I associate myself with. I’ll always support those those who are true to themselves and be who they truly are. I will always be your biggest advocate!”
Dunn told GayStarNews: “Clearly whoever created it doesn’t have any idea of the person I am and what I stand for. I’ve spent the last several years being very public about my sexuality whilst I was an athlete and still continue to do so today. The gay community is notorious for not being our own allies. We need to learn to be more accepting of others within our community and stop idealizing a certain type whilst acting like anything else is lesser. If you think its ok to “not respect” others, perhaps your respect isn’t something that people want anyway.”
