Hawaii coach punished for saying 'faggot'

University of Hawaii football coach Greg McMackin has been punished by the university for using the word "faggot" at the Western Athletic Conference media football preview in Salt Lake City on July 30.

McMackin was suspended for 30 days without pay, took a voluntary salary reduction, must do work with the GLBT community on campus and must make a public-service announcement about how words hurt, among other things.

Part of the money from his salary reduction will pay for a GLBT student intern to conduct campuswide workshops in GLBT-awareness training.

McMackin said to reporters: “They (Notre Dame) get up and they do this little cheer, like this. You know, this little faggot dance. … Don’t write that ‘faggot dance.’ I was misquoted. … Go ahead, say ‘faggot dance.’ No. Please cover for me on that … I’ll deny it.”

Audio of the incident was posted by The Idaho Statesman newspaper.

A short while after uttering the slur, McMackin again tried to talk reporters out of reporting it.

“Please don’t write that statement I said as far as Notre Dame,” he said.
“I don’t want to come out and have every homosexual ticked off at me. You know what I mean. Because I don’t have any problem with homosexuals. But I apologize for saying that and I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t run that word. If you said dance, that’s OK. But don’t use the bad term that I chose, please.”

Reporters didn’t bite, which led to more apologizing.

“I would sincerely like to apologize for the inappropriate verbiage, words that I used,” McMackin said. “I don’t talk like that and I’m really ticked off at myself for saying that. I don’t have any prejudices and it really makes me mad that I even said that and I’m disappointed in myself. … I was trying to make a joke and it was a bad choice of words and I really — I really, really feel bad about it and I wanted to apologize. I’m going to apologize to my team. I’m going to apologize to the people in Hawaii.”

A day later, back in Hawaii, McMackin continued: “I’m committed to do whatever I can to use this as a life lesson and to learn from my mistake. I’ve offended the gay and lesbian community and now I’m going to work with the LGBT community on campus to use this as a teachable moment for me and hopefully others.”

By Rex Wockner