Here’s the first reference:
It was just a single televised interview, aired on ESPN Sunday night, but Sam came across as forthright and self-assured, inherently pleasant but tough-minded and hardened to the worst brands of adversity, from the tragedies in his family to the belittling of his lifestyle.
Again, in a mock-up of what Jenkins thinks Sam should say to his teammates:
A person’s sexuality does not come by choice. … I’m here to play football, not look for dates in the locker room. … Lay it on with the rookie treatment; I’m just like any other first-timer. … Got a nickname that makes fun of my lifestyle? I’ll be laughing right along with you. … Look me in the eyes, man to man. If you’ve got a problem, let’s sort it out right now. … Life’s too short in the NFL. Don’t waste it on hatred.
GLAAD’s guide for journalists is pretty clear on this – “lifestyle” is an offensive way of describing sexual orientation. I think this guy puts it very well:
My lifestyle, as I described it to him, is that I am “a fairly conservative living, politically liberal-leaning, community-oriented, faithful family-oriented caregiver who happens to enjoy riding a Harley and likes to wear boots and leather.” This has nothing to do with my sexual orientation and that a man is my mate, and I choose to have sex only with him (that choice is called monogamy).
Tom Ammiano had fun with a similar distinction not long ago, when he reminded his Assembly colleagues that “my sexual orientation is gay. My sexual preference is Brad Pitt.”
Not a huge deal, but the Copy Desk at the Chron (if all of the editors haven’t been laid off) ought to know better. And since this is something Sam will have to face and correct a lot in the future, it would help if the San Francisco papers got it right.
Tried Jenkins and the top editors at the Chron, but no word back yet.
The EB Express has a fascinating piece about a company that buys up foreclosed property then rents it out, at rates higher than the old mortgage. In the process, local purchasers get pushed out and homeowners become tenants:
I think that as this industry grows we could see another massive income transfer,” said Edelman. “Corporations can access credit more easily, therefore they have a disturbing advantage over a family in buying a home. There are a lot of qualified borrowers right now that can’t get mortgages,” borrowers who will therefore miss out on home price recoveries.
I’ve often wondered why more cities are doing what Richmond is, and trying to take over foreclosed property. And I wonder: Why don’t the Titans of Tech use some of the money they’re making to create a nonprofit that would buy foreclosed property and rent it back to the former owners at a low rate, with rent going toward an option to buy the house back later? Something that would really help a lot of people, at not a lot of net cost.
Maybe riding the tech bus to work isn’t so great after all. Maybe tech companies are really just … big corporations.
Hard to believe even USA Today can do a story on “booming San Francisco” without any mention of displacement, protests, or anything but upbeat news about how glorious it is to live in a boomtown. Perhaps the boosters should read this.
