Stephanie Rice, of Queensland, Brisbane Australia currently holds the world record in the 400 m individual medley, and won three gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. What she no longer holds is a lucrative Jaguar sponsorship because of using a gay slur/on Twitter about the Wallabies’ victory over South Africa. (Aussie Football) After the Wallabies’ last-gasp win over South Africa on Saturday night, Rice tweeted: ‘Suck on that faggots!’
The comment attracted criticism from gay actor and former Australian rugby league star Ian Roberts, who labelled Rice a “complete idiot
Jaguar Australia general manager Kevin Goult late yesterday confirmed Rice, who has been employed as a brand ambassador since the start of the year, had been axed. It is a huge blow for Rice, who also has commercial agreements with Davenport, SunRice and Channel 7. Davenport, Rice’s most endangered contract because of the brand’s popularity with the gay community, said it did not “in any way” condone Rice’s comment. It would not comment further
Brand expert Dr Stephen Downes said the controversy could make Rice too risky for the underwear maker.
“The fact she would tweet something like that that is suggestive of someone that acts before they think,” Dr Downes said. “No matter how excited she was, it’s a very poor choice of words.”
Aussie cutie Matt Mitcham, a fellow Beijing Olympic gold medallist who has trained with Rice, said he believed the glamour girl’s comment was made in haste.
“I don’t condone what she said, but I don’t think she is a homophobic person at all,” Mitcham said. “I don’t think she meant anything by it.”
Rice last night said she accepted Jaguar’s decision. “I have made a mistake and I am very sorry for my actions,” she said.
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Reiner:“We view this as the last leg of the civil rights race we’re running… The gay community is the only community in America that is viewed as less under the law of any group so this last little piece that we can hopefully put in place with our federal court challenge to Prop 8… There’s still a lot of work to be done and I don’t want anybody to think that we’ve won this. By no stretch of the imagination have we won this. Years from now we’ll look back and say, ‘what was all that fuss about?’ People will look back and say, you mean there was a time that women couldn’t vote? There was a time that blacks couldn’t vote or blacks couldn’t marry whites? I mean, we look at those things as ridiculous now and we will look at this as being ridiculous but right now we’re in the middle of a fight and we have to keep fighting… We’re going to win this, but we’ve got to keep our foot on the gas.” – Emmy-winning actor, director and activist Rob Reiner on Stephanie Miller’s Talking Liberally (Click the link to hear the full interview)
