LGBT group tackles Chiefs kicker's Catholic college address: 'Erroneous and dangerous'
The nation's largest LGBT advocacy organization, GLAAD, has issued a fact check of Harrison Butker's commencement speech at a private Catholic college last week, saying the three-time Super Bowl winner's address was filled with "erroneous and dangerous claims," even suggesting the kicker was out of step with Pope Francis.
"Kansas City Chiefs player Harrison Butker’s commencement speech was not only a clear miss, it was inaccurate, ill-informed, and woefully out of step with Americans about Pride, LGBTQ people and women," GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement.
During the address given at Benedictine College in Kansas, Butker encouraged graduating women to embrace their vocations, like motherhood, in their futures and also assailed "the deadly sin sort of Pride that has an entire month dedicated to it" in comparison to "the true God-centered pride that is cooperating with the Holy Ghost to glorify Him."
"'Gender ideologies' is a term fabricated by anti-LGBTQ activists to deny the reality that transgender and other gender-diverse people exist," according to one of GLAAD's fact checks. "Butker reinforced toxic stereotypes about men, power and control."
GLAAD fact-checked Butker's assertion attributing the COVID-19 pandemic to "bad policies and poor leadership." Butker further contended that inadequate leadership had ramifications on various fronts, including "abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia," which he attributed to "degenerate cultural values and media," all stemming from what he described as "the pervasiveness of disorder."
"Fact: Butker omits the fact that Donald Trump was president at the inception of COVID, lied about COVID, and downplayed the threat for months as hundreds of thousands of Americans died and got sick," the organization wrote.
Another fact check by the organization stated, "Fact: Extremist legislators and Supreme Court justices have restricted access to deeply personal health care decisions that are supported by a majority of Americans across party lines and all faith backgrounds."
Much of Butker's speech urged graduates to be "authentically and unapologetically Catholic" and stick to traditional values. However, GLAAD's fact-check called Butker's "generalizations about Catholics" at odds with the papal authority of Pope Francis, who has "has taken more actions than any pope in history in support of LGBTQ people and to welcome LGBTQ people in the church."
"American Catholics have supported marriage for same-sex couples at consistently higher rates than the general population over the past two decades," the organization wrote.
The portion of Butker's speech that appears to have generated the most scrutiny from traditional media outlets, as well as social media blowback, was when he addressed women in the audience, saying they are the ones in society "who have had the most diabolical lies told to you."
"I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you," Butker said.
"How many of you are sitting here now, about to cross this stage, and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world," he said.
"Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. I can tell you that my beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say that her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother," he said.
CLICK HERE TO READ HARRISON BUTKER’S FULL SPEECH
Earlier in Butker's speech, he asserted that "for most of us," their vocation is to be "married men and women."
"It is only in the past few years that I have grown encouraged to speak more boldly and directly, because, as I mentioned earlier, I have leaned into my vocation as a husband and father and as a man," he said.
Fox News' Chantz Martin contributed to this report.