Charles Barkley – Photo; Chensiyuan, via Wikimedia.
NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley has criticized attempts by right-wingers to “cancel” corporations or individuals who seek to market to or show support for the LGBTQ community.
In the first video, Barkley encourages the crowd to drink Bud Light and expresses support for members of the LGBTQ community.
“I want to say this,” Barkley says. “I want y’all to drink this f*ck*g beer. I want y’all to drink this f*ck*g beer. I got three cases of Bud Light. Hey, and I want to say this. If you’re gay, bless you. If you’re transgender, bless you. And if you have a problem with that, f*ck you!”
“I’m gonna buy some drinks for y’all, and I’m gonna buy Bud Light,” Barkley says in a second video, which was shot the following evening. “Hey, and I’m gonna tell y’all something. All you rednecks or a**holes who don’t want to drink Bud Light, f**k y’all.”
“Y’all can cancel me. I ain’t worried about getting canceled because if yall fire me and give me all that money I’m going to be playing golf every f**king day.”
“So listen, as I said last night, if you’re gay, God bless you. If you’re trans, God bless you. And if you have a problem with them, f**k you.”
This is not the first time Barkley has stood with the LGBTQ community. In 2011 he spoke against bigotry during a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. before a Celtics-Magic game.
“You know, people try to make it about black and white. He [Dr. King] talked about equality for every man, every woman. We have a thing going on now — people discriminating against homosexuality in this country.
“I love the homosexual people. God bless the gay people. They are great people.”
In 2013, he critiqued the prevalence of homophobia within the sports world in response to some players’ alleged discomfort around the idea of having LGBTQ teammates following NBA player Jason Collins coming out as gay. During an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show, when asked if he’d ever played alongside gay teammates he responded: “Yeah, of course I did!”
“Everybody did. Everybody played with a gay teammate, Dan, and it’s no big deal,” he said.
“First of all, I think it’s an insult to gay people to think they’re trying to pick up on their teammates,” Barkley added. “But everybody’s played with a gay teammate.”
Barkley currently appears on Inside the NBA on TNT where he provides insights and analysis on games and basketball-related topics.
Police in York, Pennsylvania, have arrested 22-year-old Devin Harbaugh on charges of aggravated assault and strangulation. He is accused of choking a drag performer outside Gift Horse Brewing Company on August 22 in an attack that allegedly targeted three people for their perceived sexual orientation and gender expression.
According to police affidavits, Harbaugh and the victim -- identified as drag performer Sible Sible Stackhouse, known to friends as Vayne Disharoon -- were both at Gift Horse that night when an altercation broke out between their friend groups.
"It was kind of confusing," David Archuleta says, recalling the time roughly 16 years ago when he was first asked to write a memoir. "What am I supposed to talk about? I'm 18 years old, and I feel like I'm just starting my journey, and you want me to write a memoir now?"
That memoir, Chords of Strength: A Memoir of Soul, Song, and the Power of Perseverance, was written by Archuleta with Monica Haim and published by an imprint of Penguin Group in 2010. He was barely an adult at the time, and it had only been two years since he competed on American Idol, becoming the season seven runner-up.
If you’ve been on social media this summer, those five words have been almost inescapable. Originally part of a British budget airline ad, featuring Jess Glynne singing a snippet of her hit "Hold My Hand," the soundbite has taken on a viral life of its own.
On TikTok alone, the sound has been used in over 2.1 million videos, scoring everything from bad flight experiences to cringe-worthy vacation blunders.
The Trump administration jumped into the Jet2 Holiday meme-a-palooza in its own way. On July 29, the official White House X account posted a video of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees in restraints, set to the ad's soundtrack.
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