Former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield, best known for having a piece of his ear bitten off by a frustrated Mike Tyson during a pay-per-view prizefight for the heavyweight title, is in hot water for anti-gay comments he made on Big Brother.
A plot of the episode in question involved Holyfield being handcuffed to housemate Luisa Zissman. While cuffed together, Zissman made a remark about hoping more gay athletes would reveal their sexuality, and continue to normalize the presence of gays in all walks of life.
Holyfield responded in a highly controversial fashion, comparing homosexuality to a handicap. What would be good about it?" Holyfield asked of athletes coming out as gay. That ain't normal. The bible lets you know, that's wrong, that's right."
Zissman tried to convince Holyfield that gay people are born as homosexuals, but Holyfield wasn't having it. "No, it don't make no difference. If you were born and your leg were turned this way, what do you do, you go to the doctor and get it fixed back right."
After that Zissman made an effort to end the uncomfortable conversation, but Holyfield continued to dig his hole. No, no, no, no, no, you mean to tell me... I'm not mad, I'm just saying... All I'm trying to tell you, you know how handicapped people are born, you can't say because they were born that way."
During the interaction Holyfield also said that there were no openly gay boxers; he was obviously unaware of Puerto Rican boxer Orlando Cruz, who outed himself in 2012.
Quickly after his tense back-and-forth he was summoned and warned by the Big Brother about inflammatory comments and their adverse effect. "I forgot about the thing," Holyfield said. "I was just telling her my opinion, but it's not like I was gonna mention it to anybody else, that was just our conversation."
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