("Emile Griffith, Boxer Who Unleashed a Fatal Barrage, Dies at 75")
In
1967 CBS ran a segment of "60 Minutes" called "The Homosexuals". Mike
Wallace summarized the plight of such a person: "told by the medical
professional he's sick, by the law
that he's a criminal; shunned by employers, rejected by heterosexual
society. Incapable of a fulfilling relationship with a woman, or for
that matter a man."
In a sport celebrated for its savagery, at a time more than a
half century ago, when being gay was deemed unnatural, perverse and even
criminal, the public allegation raised by Benny the Kid against the
welterweight champion of the world was much worse than any punch to the
gut.
Only one person could ever know whether those words contributed to
the fury of the blows that night in March of 1962. Only one person will
ever know whether those punches were intended to beat back a truth that
society, and maybe even Emile Griffith, was far from ready to accept.
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