By Jeff Moss and Brian Cavanaugh
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
June 17, 2016

On Thursday, my friend, I mean bitter enemy who nobody in this town should hire regardless of the circumstances Tony Paul posted an article in the Detroit News regarding the importance of Gay Pride Month in light of the horrific attack on Pulse nightclub in Orlando last weekend which left 49 dead and double that number injured.

The brave piece shouldn’t have been very controversial at all as it mainly centered around Paul’s experiences at gay clubs and pride marches where he always felt insulated from the rampant homophobia of the outside world.

Paul didn’t spend paragraphs discussing how this most likely wasn’t an ISIS inspired terrorist attack but instead the workings of a tortured, self-hating homosexual who took his anger out on a club he frequented. And I doubt he spent years “casing” the joint for this eventual attack. Even Robert DeNiro’s crew in “Heat” wasn’t THAT exacting. I’m pretty sure he was there to enjoy himself.

(And please save me the “He called 911 to say that this murderous rampage was being done in the name of the Islamic State.” I am guessing that was the last act of this closeted individual. His last “beard” to hide the real reasons behind the massacre.)

Tony didn’t use the space to target the hypocritical Devos Family, who donated $500,000 to support the families and victims of the attack, but who have spent the last decade spending probably TEN TIMES that amount to ensure that members of the LGBT community did not have the same basic rights that the heterosexual community enjoyed.

Paul didn’t mention in his column that if you really wanted to blame the Muslim faith for anything in regards to this attack, you should focus on the worldwide treatment of gays by practitioners of that faith (which makes the Catholic religion look welcoming in comparison).

I mean, Paul didn’t even approach the issue of why ANY civilian needs a god damn AR-15 in the first place.

Nope. Tony didn’t focus on any of that. Hell, he even commended this state’s Attorney General Bill Schuette for calling him last year and being cordial and supportive when Paul announced to the public that he is gay.

An Attorney General, mind you, who has fought the LGBT community at every turn while in office and who would probably do further damage were he to be elected Governor in 2018.

The article, while important, was fairly innocuous and basically delivered the message that being proud of your community is very important and that this country still has a long way to go when it comes to equality for all … even if the marriage issue is now settled law.

Of course, if you based your opinion of Tony’s article on the Facebook comment section underneath his column, you’d probably think Paul did all of the above PLUS showed up at a recent Tigers home game in the press box wearing ass-less chaps, singing the Village People’s hit “Macho Man” while spinning Perez Hilton around his arm.

Anyway, here are some of the more disgusting comments:

Yeah, we don’t still have a long way to go in this country. What a controversial thesis. Ya gotta believe me.

This latest bout of gun violence hit closer to home for me than most. My wife lived in Orlando from 2004 to 2006 and worked in the fashion world so, as you can imagine, she was friends with plenty of gay men. Her apartment was less than two miles from Pulse.

She had to wait until the names of all the victims were released to see if she knew any of the deceased. Luckily, she didn’t. The only person in the bar that evening to whom she was even tangentially connected got out unscathed.

My only “connection” to a mass shooting remains the death of a Detroit Tigers fan who perished in the Virginia Tech massacre a decade ago. A guy who despised me and hated the DSR and made no bones about it on message boards.

But you wonder how long you can stay clear of the carnage when this shit seems to occur on a weekly basis. Whether it’s a real member of ISIS, a self-hating gay man, an acne-faced kid inspired by white supremacists or some jackass who can’t get laid.

Going to the movies, a bar, or a school seems like Russian Roulette at this point.

[Pun intended.]