Fellow teammate says he supports gay marriage but defends Tyree’s freedom of speech.“Whatever happened to freedom of speech in America? Is that not a constitutional right anymore?”
That was the sentiment tweeted by former Giant Derrick Ward, who spoke out in defense of fellow teammate David Tyree, as reported by the New York Daily News.
Tyree is under fire, and the Giants have been under pressure, for his longtime support of traditional marriage. The former player, who was a hero in Super Bowl XLII, was outspoken on behalf of the National Organization for Marriage, when New York State was debated a “marriage equality” bill in 2011. That bill passed, making New York the sixth state allowing members of the same sex to enter into marriage.
The Giants have drawn heat over the past week for hiring Tyree as director of player development. Tyree has sent some appeasing signals. But Ward came to his defense on Twitter.
Ward, who played for the Giants from 2004-08, said in a series of tweets he himself has nothing agains same-sex marriage, but stood up for Tyree’s right to an opinion of his own.
“What makes people feel like he shouldn’t be hired by the NYgiants just because of the way he feels about a certain situation,” he tweeted.
Just after the Giants announced Tyree’s hiring last week, the Human Rights Campaign issuing a statement pointing out that Tyree has supported reparative therapy, which seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation.
In 2011 Tyree recorded a video interview with NOM, in which he said one of the most disturbing messages gay marriage sends is that “you don’t need a mother or father.”
He said that when he was growing up he was “impacted severely” because his father was not “in the home.”
