- UPDATE 1: I posted this entry at 3:30pm. It's 4:47pm and the page is gone (reader comments remain, though). Univision must know they erred but there's been no apology yet.
- UPDATE 2: An explanation for the disappearance of the page and the poll. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) got wind of the poll through this blog and asked Univision to remove it ("Problematic poll removed from Univision.com after GLAAD Intervenes" via GLAAD Blog)
Well, kiddies, on Tuesday they went one better and posted a new poll asking "Is it correct for a bishop to call gays 'faggots'?".
On the soccer question one of the options they gave readers as a possible answer was "No, soccer is a sport for macho men".
This time they give the following options:
b) No, it's an insult
c) Clergy should not give an opinion on social issues
d) Yes, it is a defense of a religious perspective
e) No, and it should be penalized
The answers here, of course, don't really make sense nor do they matter that much. Online sites use these "polls" to engage readers and keep them on their page.
The true issue here is why Univision.com deems it fit to keep posting these homophobic polls even after they've been caught red-handed in the past (the soccer poll was quickly pulled within a couple of days after Queerty and After Elton picked up on my post).
Or does Univision feel there is any question whatsoever on whether it's OK to call gays "faggots'? That's one explanation I'd really like to get my hands on.
As the presidential race is heating up in Peru, the issue of civil unions for same-sex couples has jumped to the forefront up with the leading political party in the polls promising that they'll back such unions - as long as it's not marriage.
The Peruvian Catholic Church has been trying to mount an effort to paint same-sex civil unions as marriages in riling against those political candidates who back the measure and are using the same tropes used elsewhere to argue against them.
In this interview, which aired a week ago today, Bishop Luis Bambarén doesn't stray from the script until the end. He says that marriages are between "a man and a woman" and are part of "God's plan" and that any attempt against changing the rules of marriage is an attack on God's plan. Yada, yada.
If that's all he'd said to reporters, it probably would have been a blip on the media radar. But, just as he seems to have finish answering the question, the Bishop turns back to the reporters and asks "why is there so much talk of 'gay', 'gay', 'gay'! Let's talk Spanish, in common language [we say] 'faggots'! That's how it's said, right? So let's say it clearly" [jump to the 2:43 mark on the video].
As you might expect, the comments drew immediate international attention and reproach. Australia's Herald Sun picked up on it as well as the Bishop's semi-apology which he released a day later ("Bishop apologizes after gay slur", January 26, 2011).
So, even Bishop Bambarén had apologized by the time Univision posted their most recent poll on their site yesterday.
Shouldn't Univision stop their homophobic polls and apologize as well? We'll see what happens.
Related:
- Bishop Bambarén's apology, as transmitted on Peruvian radio, here.