The Big Ten conference has named its humanitarian award after former Gopher football player and NFL coach Tony Dungy. Dungy has courted controversy for his support of vehemently anti-gay organizations such as the Indiana Family Institue (akin to the Minnesota Family Council).
Dungy has raised nearly $70,000 for the IFI.
Cyd Zeigler, gay sports writer said of the announcement, “If it was written into a Hollywood script it wouldn’t be believable. A man raises tens of thousands of dollars to fight against civil rights, he says he embraces the fight against civil rights… and he has a humanitarian award named after him.”
Dungy’s history with Minnesota brought him here in 2007 to be honored at the McNamara Alumni Center where the LGBT community protested his appeareance.
Protest organizers from the Queer Student Cultural Center said the silent demonstration at the U was not a protest against Dungy himself. Becky Saltzman, co-chairwoman of the center, said the demonstration was “a statement about the silencing effects groups like the Indiana Family Council and statements like Dungy’s have on our community.” The center presented a petition of nearly 300 signatures to alumni association CEO Margaret Carlson, stating that her group “should honor those who exemplify what it means to be a true ‘Golden Gopher’: one who affirms the dignity of everyone regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, race, ethnicity, ability, age, class, or religious belief.”
Carlson herself was in front of Mariucci Arena across from the protesters. “The University of Minnesota has 380,000 living alumni of the Twin Cities campus and they have a very diverse set of values and beliefs and we’re inclusive of all of them,” Carlson said. “The alumni association is very inclusive. We have a gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender special interest group, but we really do believe diversity at its best is totally inclusive.”
When asked if the association supported the student protest, Carlson said, “Yep, we told them to come on out.”
Cultural center co-chairwoman Elysa Hays said the point was more to spotlight the university’s inconsistencies. “Diversity of opinion is one thing, but the university’s stance on these issues is that they affirm GLBT identities and that we are welcome at the university. To honor someone who believes the opposite just seems inconsistent.”