“When I read the column posted on Outsports about what Schilling had said, I was hurt. I rooted for Schilling and the Red Sox to win the World Series, especially through the bloody sock game and to see the image, to feel the disdain and vile emotion dripping from his post , it just hurt.”
Jamie Neal is a transgender sports writer who scribes for various online outlets. She opened up to me about a certain situation that rocked the sports world.
ESPN Baseball Tonight analyst Curt Schilling was recently fired from his job at ESPN.
The former All-Star pitcher turned analyst was terminated from the network Wednesday following criticism after a post he made on social media geared towards the transgender community.
I won’t go over the specifics of said post, but you can read the details here.
Neal told me her feelings of hurt and shock were one thing, but she wanted to point out the fact that he’s in a prominent position and in the spotlight.
” [Curt] is the face of ESPN’s baseball coverage,” explains Neal. “We all know he has had issues in the past with running his mouth about his conservative views and that ESPN had taken it a little more lightly so why continue? Why press? Go to a different news outlet and share that stuff when you’re not employed by a company that, to this point, had shown no political leaning.”
Neal decided to take things into her own hands and give her thoughts to Outsports. She wanted to write the blog not for attention, but to educate.
“This is the biggest issue transgender people face – these people who have preconceived notions about what we do, why we do it, and what our intentions are,” Neal writes in the blog. “This guy called me a fraud without knowing I am transgender and then, after he went to bat for Schilling even though he doesn’t follow me (which means he had to search Schilling’s mentions to specifically pick a fight), he decided to tell me that I was searching for attention.”
She also addressed a tweet that Schilling sent in response to her following his social media post.
After posting the article, Neal received some inevitable backlash.
“And then the hate came,” she explained. “That first 24 hours was kind of rough. However, those people found other people to harass. Those people moved on and I was still sitting here, proud as could be of the piece I had written and what was accomplished.”
I spoke to Neal off and on throughout the day and she is not looking for attention, I can guarantee that. She is, however, trying to develop a platform and educate individuals on the situations at hand.
Neal told me there was a 24-hour period in which the NHL fined and suspended a player for using a derogatory term, ESPN fired Schilling for sharing the picture, and the NBA told North Carolina that if they didn’t repeal House Bill 2, the All-Star Game would be removed.
“This is a pretty good 24 hours indeed,” said Neal.