ESPN Fires Analyst Curt Schilling After Anti-LGBT Facebook Post

ESPN fired analyst and former Red Sox ace pitcher Curt Schilling, 49, on Wednesday night, just one day after he was slammed by critics for posting a meme on Facebook that supported a new North Carolina law that mandates people use public restrooms that match the sex listed on their birth certificate.

ESPN Fires Analyst Curt Schilling After Anti-LGBT Facebook Post

“ESPN is an inclusive company,” the cable network said in a statement. “Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated.”

Schilling’s post came in the form of a Facebook meme depicting a fat, ugly man wearing a blond wig, peek-a-boo T-shirt and stockings with the caption “LET HIM IN! To the restroom with your daughter or else you’re a narrow minded, judgmental, unloving racist bigot who needs to DIE!!!”

Although Schilling did not originally post the picture, he shared it and commented, “A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic.”

Fervent opponents of the North Carolina law, which include Outsports, blasted Schilling, using as a headline for their piece: “This is ESPN’s Curt Schilling’s disgusting view of transgender people.”

This is not the first time the former right-handed Red Sox ace has come under fire for his politically insensitive remarks. He previously compared Muslim extremists to Nazis and said Hillary Clinton “belongs under a jail somewhere” for using a private email server.

Both Schilling and his wife Shonda launched vehement defenses shortly after the incident and Schilling removed the post from his Facebook page, but his bosses appeared to remain unswayed.

“You frauds out there ranting and screaming about my ‘opinions’ (even if it isn’t) and comments are screaming for ‘tolerance’ and ‘acceptance’ while you refuse to do and be either,” Schilling wrote. “I do NOT care what color you are, what race, what sex, who you sleep with, what you wear. I don’t care and I never have. I have opinions, but they’re just that, opinions.”

Shonda took it a step further, lambasting the media for their coverage of the scandal.

“I am pissed,” Shonda wrote. “You have hit a very sensitive nerve with me today in the media. When you take a single private Facebook post that belonged to my husband and turn it into a sensationalized headline that is not true…

“My 16 year old son is a great advocate of all sexual orientation and the gender spectrum,” she continued. “He has been educating us way before Caitlin Jenner ever hit the newsstands. He has several friends who are trans and who have been in and out of our home and even stayed with us. We treat no one differently …”

Shonda finally added, “Curt Schilling is probably more educated and has met more trans people than most of the sports writers spreading this nonsense. If you want a real story talk to these kids about how hard it is to get family, friends and society to accept them. This house is and will always be the one place that everyone is accepted and feel loved.”

Schilling’s spokeswoman did not return a call on Wednesday night.

Article by Pablo Mena