Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker has helped his team win three Super Bowls since joining them in 2017. He holds the record for kicking the longest-ever field goal in a Super Bowl (57 yards) and for scoring the most field goals in a Super Bowl (nine).

However, Harrison Butker has also become infamous for making anti-LGBTQ+ comments during a graduation speech and was rumored to have previously slept with men and undergone so-called “ex-gay” conversion therapy.

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Are any of these rumors true? Did Harrison Butker really undergo conversion therapy? Did he really hook up with a Georgia Tech male cheerleader? Let’s take a closer look at the claims below.

Did Harrison Butker mention conversion therapy in his Benedictine College graduation speech?

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No. Harrison Butker didn’t mention conversion therapy in his May 11, 2024, commencement address at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas (a school that once forced its out gay basketball player Jallen Messersmith to remove a Pride flag hung in his dorm room window). However, Butker did use the speech to praise “traditional” gender roles and make anti-LGBTQ+ comments.

In his speech, Butker said that “degenerate cultural values” have “negatively impacted” everyone. He encouraged the school’s Catholic students to speak the truth amid a society that tries to silence them. He then insinuated that Catholic government leaders, like then-President Joe Biden, of “pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America.” Butker also mentioned “the deadly sin sort of pride that has an entire month dedicated to it.”

Additionally, Butker said that women have been fed “diabolical lies” about placing their careers over the fulfillment of marrying a man and becoming a homemaker (like his wife). He also encouraged men to fight “against the cultural emasculation of men.”

Following widespread criticism, Butker stood by his words, saying, “If it wasn’t clear that the timeless Catholic values are hated by many, it is now. As to be expected, the more I’ve talked about what I value most, which is my Catholic faith, the more polarizing I’ve become. It’s a decision I’ve consciously made and one I do not regret at all.”

How did the LGBTQ+ community respond to Harrison Butker’s graduation speech?

Critics called the speech misogynistic and queerphobic. In a statement, Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the LGBTQ+ media watchdog group GLAAD, said, “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.”

The organization also noted that “gender ideologies” is a term fabricated by anti-LGBTQ+ activists and noted that then-Pope Francis had taken more actions than any pope in history to support LGBTQ+ people, especially trans people, and to welcome them into the Catholic church.

The LGBTQ+ sports website Outsports named Butker as its “2024 A**hole of the Year”, calling the speech an “awful, mean-spirited commentary that targeted the LGBTQ community with pettiness and disdain.”

How did the NFL respond to Harrison Butker’s graduation speech?

The Kansas City Chiefs’ head coach, Andy Reid, said, “We’re a microcosm of life. Everybody is from different areas, different religions, different races. And so, we all get along, we all respect each other’s opinions – and not necessarily do we go by those, but we respect everybody to have a voice. [That’s the] great thing about America…. my wish is that everybody could kind of follow that.”

The Chiefs’ chairman, Clark Hunt, said, “One of the things I talk to the players every year about at training camp is using their platform to make a difference. We have players on both sides of the political spectrum, both sides of whatever controversial issue you want to bring up. I’m not at all concerned when our players use their platform to make a difference,” the Associated Press reported.

Former Kansas City commissioner Justice Horn condemned the speech, writing via social media, “Harrison Butker doesn’t represent Kansas City nor has he ever. Kansas City has always been a place that welcomes, affirms, and embraces our LGBTQ+ community members.”

Harrison Butker doesn’t represent Kansas City nor has he ever. Kansas City has always been a place that welcomes, affirms, and embraces our LGBTQ+ community members.

Source: LGBTQ Nation