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LAKE TAHOE, Nv. – Basketball great Charles Barkley has always been a constant, upstanding ally of the LGBTQ+ community. He proved that again with remarks that have gone viral on social media.
It happened earlier this month at a Lake Tahoe casino hotel, where he took part in an annual celebrity golf tournament.
“If you’re gay or transgender, I love you,” Barkley told the crowd, standing with the band as they set up. The crowd cheered and the keyboardist’s eyes pop wide open after hearing what the All-American power forward had just said. But Barkley wasn’t finished.
“Hey, and if anybody gives you shit, you tell ’em, Charles said, ‘Fuck you!’”
TikTok user l._banana captured the moment on video, and an Australian TV reporter tweeted it out:
This was at Harveys Lake Tahoe Hotel and Casino during the 2022 American Century Championship at Edgewood Tahoe, Nevada, which ran from July 6 through the 10th. The video has now been viewed more than 7.6 million times.
“I love Charles Barkley,” tweeted out trans activist and writer Charlotte Clymer. “Everything I’ve ever heard about the man says he’s good people. And I wish he knew how much this video is giving hope to LGBTQ youth who are very scared of living in this country right now.”
As HuffPost reported, being an LGBTQ+ ally isn’t a new thing for Barkley. He told Ellen DeGeneres in 2020 that he would not let anti-LGBTQ discrimination “happen on my watch.”
As the Blade reported, Barkley was instrumental in convincing the NBA to move its 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte, N.C., to protest HB2, the state’s “bathroom bill” that banned trans people from using public restrooms that matched their gender identity.
“I hated the ‘bathroom bill,’ ” the TNT sports analyst told DeGeneres. “So, I went to my boss and said, ‘Hey boss, I’m gonna sit out of the All-Star Game. I don’t want to take away from the All-Star Game, but I’m gonna sit out the All-Star Game.’”
“Black people know what discrimination is like,” he said on The Ellen Show. “If you’re in a position of power, you’ve got to always stand up against discrimination. I’ve been blessed.”
Barkley said gays should be “blessed” as well, during a TNT tribute to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 2011.
“God bless the gay people,” he said. “They are great people.”
Barkley also showed support for Jason Collins, who in 2013 was the first NBA player to come out as gay, and in 2014 became the first out gay athlete in U.S. pro sports. Collins faced criticism at the time from fans, analysts and athletes, including Mike Wallace of the Miami Dolphins, former Knicks guard turned coach Mark Jackson and even ESPN’s Chris Broussard.
Barkley wasn’t having any of it, and said so in a radio interview in 2013: “I’d rather have a gay guy who can play than a straight guy who can’t play,” Barkley told Dan Patrick.
He’s also a man who admits that for at least a decade he has gone “commando,” which is just one of the “dumbest things Charles Barkley has ever said,” according to a popular video on YouTube.
However, Barkley’s reputation as a humanitarian is secure; Earlier this month, he donated $1M to Spelman College, and it’s not the first time he’s donated a million bucks to one of the U.S.’s historically Black colleges or universities.
But as for his golf game, there’s lots of room for improvement.
On July 10, he finished in 74th place at the ACC, with minus-26 points, his best-ever finish in the tournament, but not good enough to beat the pride of Chico, Calif.: Aaron Rodgers. The two sports icons wagered that if Barkley finished ahead of the Green Bay Packers quarterback, Rodgers would let Barkley cut off his man bun.
Instead, the NBA legend agreed to donate $25,000 to Rodgers’ charity of choice—Chico’s North Valley Community Foundation.
Barkley on The Ellen Show:
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