Ee Griffh, who famoly killed fellow boxer after gay slur, di at 75 - CBS News

Contents:

• ORLANDO CZ: THE GAY BOXER WHO IS BREAKG BARRIERS
• KILLER PUNCH OF A SECRETLY GAY BOXER
• EE GRIFFH, WHO FAMOLY KILLED FELLOW BOXER AFTER GAY SLUR, DI AT 75
• ALLEN’S SUBSTACKSUBSCRIBESIGN {"@NTEXT":","@TYPE":"NEWSARTICLE","URL":","MAENTYOFPAGE":","HEADLE":"THE GAY BOXER HISTORY: AL PANAMA BROWN","SCRIPTN":"A BANTAMWEIGHT BOXG CHAMPN WH A BARET REER ON THE SI","IMAGE":[{"@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT","URL":"}],"DATEPUBLISHED":"2023-04-07T14:50:07+00:00","DATEMODIFIED":"2023-04-07T14:50:07+00:00","ISACCSIBLEFORFREE":TE,"THOR":[{"@TYPE":"PERSON","NAME":"ALLEN FRANTZEN","URL":","SCRIPTN":"ALLEN IS A RETIRED PROFSOR AND ACTIVE BOXER, THOR OF MORN MASCULY, A GUI FOR MEN (2016) AND BOXG AND MASCULY: FIGHTG TO FD THE WHOLE MAN (2022). HE HAS PUBLISHED MANY BOOKS ON THE MIDDLE AG.","INTIFIER":"ER:68133497","IMAGE":{"@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT","NTENTURL":","THUMBNAILURL":"}}],"PUBLISHER":{"@TYPE":"ORGANIZATN","NAME":"ALLEN\U2019S SUBSTACK","URL":","SCRIPTN":"BOXG, BOXG BOOKS, AND MASCULY","TERACTNSTATISTIC":{"@TYPE":"INTERACTNCOUNTER","NAME":"SUBSCRIBERS","TERACTNTYPE":","ERINTERACTNCOUNT":100},"INTIFIER":"PUB:1258890","LOGO":{"@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT","URL":","NTENTURL":","THUMBNAILURL":"},"IMAGE":{"@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT","URL":","NTENTURL":","THUMBNAILURL":"}}}SHARE THIS POSTTHE GAY BOXER HISTORY: AL PANAMA COPY LKFACEBOOKEMAILNOTOTHERTHE GAY BOXER HISTORY: AL PANAMA BROWN
• NEW OPERA TELLS STORY OF GAY BOXER EE GRIFFH
• GAY BOXER PROPOS TO BOYIEND AFTER WNG HIS FIRST MATCH
• ORLANDO CZ: BOXER DREAMS OF BEG FIRST OPENLY GAY WORLD CHAMPN
• WHAT ’S LIKE BEG AN OPENLY GAY BOXER, 3 TERRIBLE TWEETS
• THE NIGHT BOXER EE GRIFFH ANSWERED GAY TNTS WH A ADLY RTEGE OF PUNCH

ORLANDO CZ: THE GAY BOXER WHO IS BREAKG BARRIERS

He was gay and like all boxers, at all levels, he was judged on whether he uld fight and not on his sexual preferenc; the Pounr, who wore pk, was a nice guy but not much of a fighter and nobody held that agast Saturday Las Vegas, Orlando Cz, which is his real name, will bee the first openly gay boxer to w a world tle if he n overe the odds and beat Orlando Salido for the vant WBO featherweight tle. Cz announced he was gay last year, never lost his promoter, never lost his rankg and never lost a sgle iend om si the ugly bs of boxg. "Cz fought for Puerto Ri at the Sydney Olympics 2000 and has been a ge ntenr for a uple of years and gay for a lot longer.

"I'm a boxer first, I want to be a world champn and remembered that way and not as a gay boxer, " he the Neti, Christy Mart, another boxg pneer, said somethg siar about women the sport: "I fight for Christy Mart and not for women's rights to box. " Mart, who has sce survived a murr attempt when her hband shot and knifed her, is now retired and volved a gay relatnship.

KILLER PUNCH OF A SECRETLY GAY BOXER

"Boxg n be a macho sport and I have heard some gay slurs, " says Cz.

"However, Cz, who is 32, is not a mpaigner for gay rights jt yet and he has polely refed all attempts to csa on behalf of other gay athlet, men like him stgglg to e to terms wh tellg the people they pete wh, or for, that they are gay. However, private he has obvly spoken to other boxers facg the same dilemma he did last has received a lot of media attentn this week (Getty) (Getty Imag)"Perhaps there are other gay boxers and perhaps they are too sred to say anythg, " Cz says.

EE GRIFFH, WHO FAMOLY KILLED FELLOW BOXER AFTER GAY SLUR, DI AT 75

" Hopefully, there will not be a reverse wch-hunt boxg, like there is other sports, where people on the outsi bee fixated on outg more gay athlet; the people boxg simply don't re. "Gay, so what?

" All boxers world tle fights have to unrgo and pass a route HIV tt and plenty, none of whom said they were gay, have failed the has dited Saturday's fight to Ee Griffh, one of the greatt boxers history, who died this summer after admtg late his life that he had slept wh both men and women. He was om a time when homosexuals were not lled "gay" and he hated the word once was ed to scribe him when he fally end three s of speculatn. The Cuban never revered and died a few days emerged later that Paret had lled Griffh a marin, the Spanish word for homosexual, and had touched him appropriately when the pair weighed for the fight; Paret was naked at the time, which is not unmon for a tle fight.

There has always been a bate about whether Paret meant or was jt sayg to get unr Griffh's sk; Griffh told me that Paret had been ma to say , but that was heartfelt and meant, which is good enough for late great Ee Griffh me out after he retired (Getty) (Getty Imag)Griffh had stggled wh his sexualy throughout his reer and retirement and 1992 was left for ad after five thugs on a "fag-bashg" rampage attacked him wh baseball bats outsi a gay club New York. "This fight is for Ee bee he never had the backg and support that I have had, " add Saturday Cz starts as a heavy unrdog agast former champn Salido but will still leave the rg as the first openly gay male boxer to fight for a world tle.

ALLEN’S SUBSTACKSUBSCRIBESIGN {"@NTEXT":","@TYPE":"NEWSARTICLE","URL":","MAENTYOFPAGE":","HEADLE":"THE GAY BOXER HISTORY: AL PANAMA BROWN","SCRIPTN":"A BANTAMWEIGHT BOXG CHAMPN WH A BARET REER ON THE SI","IMAGE":[{"@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT","URL":"}],"DATEPUBLISHED":"2023-04-07T14:50:07+00:00","DATEMODIFIED":"2023-04-07T14:50:07+00:00","ISACCSIBLEFORFREE":TE,"THOR":[{"@TYPE":"PERSON","NAME":"ALLEN FRANTZEN","URL":","SCRIPTN":"ALLEN IS A RETIRED PROFSOR AND ACTIVE BOXER, THOR OF MORN MASCULY, A GUI FOR MEN (2016) AND BOXG AND MASCULY: FIGHTG TO FD THE WHOLE MAN (2022). HE HAS PUBLISHED MANY BOOKS ON THE MIDDLE AG.","INTIFIER":"ER:68133497","IMAGE":{"@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT","NTENTURL":","THUMBNAILURL":"}}],"PUBLISHER":{"@TYPE":"ORGANIZATN","NAME":"ALLEN\U2019S SUBSTACK","URL":","SCRIPTN":"BOXG, BOXG BOOKS, AND MASCULY","TERACTNSTATISTIC":{"@TYPE":"INTERACTNCOUNTER","NAME":"SUBSCRIBERS","TERACTNTYPE":","ERINTERACTNCOUNT":100},"INTIFIER":"PUB:1258890","LOGO":{"@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT","URL":","NTENTURL":","THUMBNAILURL":"},"IMAGE":{"@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT","URL":","NTENTURL":","THUMBNAILURL":"}}}SHARE THIS POSTTHE GAY BOXER HISTORY: AL PANAMA COPY LKFACEBOOKEMAILNOTOTHERTHE GAY BOXER HISTORY: AL PANAMA BROWN

He proposed to Manuel on Facebook earlier this year and, has to be said, if he was thkg of makg the transn to gay fighter low-key, then planng a same-sex marriage was a bold move. Cz was also a first-year ductee to the Natnal Gay and Lbian Sports Hall of Fame Chigo this summer, alongsi Greg Louganis and Marta n also really fight and the thls bs of boxg, a sport that has not really changed 150 years, that is all that matters; mak no difference if you are black, whe, gay, straight, male, female, nice, unpleasant, Christian, Mlim, ugly or handsome, as long as you have guts and n have a fight. I thk that is pretty rehg and Ee would be very and proud: Gay sportspeopleJason Colls Sce g out as gay, US basketball player has been unable to fd an NBA Rogers Former Leeds and Stevenage footballer who currently plays for LA Walsh and Helen Richardson GB Olympic hockey players who married Hysen First active footballer to e out sce Jt Fashanu.

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTA Prizefighter’s Double Life, at Madison Square Garn and at StonewallA new opera productn at the Met explor the life and tragic reer of the gay boxer Ee Griffh, a welterweight champn. Photographs om the personal llectn of Willson Lee Henrson, on the right of the bottom and far right imag, who was iends wh Ee Griffh, Vazquez for The New York TimIn the 1960s, Ee Griffh was a boxg star, known for his speed and punchg power, wh a regular prence at Madison Square neighborhoods near the Garn, he let his other si show, one of flashy outfs and unapologetic swagger, where he equented his favore gay bars and Griffh kept his two worlds separate.

NEW OPERA TELLS STORY OF GAY BOXER EE GRIFFH

“He was livg a double life, two liv, night and day, ” said Willson Lee Henrson, a gay rights activist who said he met Mr. Griffh early 1969 at the Stonewall Inn, the famo gay bar Greenwich Village, several months before a police raid touched off the Stonewall Rebelln and the morn gay rights boxer, who died 2013 at 75 om kidney failure and plitns of mentia, was known at the Stonewall for his open shirts and gold chas.

Griffh unleashed a fatal barrage of punch the 12th round agast an opponent who had tnted him wh a homophobic slur. Griffh never shied away om equentg gay clubs.

GAY BOXER PROPOS TO BOYIEND AFTER WNG HIS FIRST MATCH

That ma him a source of enarment and pri for the gay muny pecially as police raids, prsure and harassment ntued the late 1960s, said Mr.

“He was a pneer gay rights behd the scen but was never acknowledged for , ” Mr. “He was never given cred by the gay muny or the sports muny, so he missed out on both. “In the ‘60s, beg gay wasn’t the most popular thg, and beg gay boxg culture was like sacrilege, ” said Michael Bentt, 58, a former world heavyweight champn and an actor who was iendly wh Mr.

“I mentned that there was this gay boxer who was an outst many muni and was loved other muni, ” said Mr. Griffh a mockg lisp and lled him “maricón, ” a Spanish anti-gay slur that enraged Mr. ”A boxer wh style and panache‘He went to the nightclubs, drag clubs, gay bars and he took all ’Mr.

ORLANDO CZ: BOXER DREAMS OF BEG FIRST OPENLY GAY WORLD CHAMPN

Griffh equented gay bars and clubs midtown like L Jard, the Gild Grape and Better Days. “He went to the nightclubs, drag clubs, gay bars and he took all , ” said Jam Robson, the opera’s director. Griffh told The Tim “He was a pneer gay rights behd the scen but was never acknowledged for , ” said Mr.

WHAT ’S LIKE BEG AN OPENLY GAY BOXER, 3 TERRIBLE TWEETS

”The beatg and his drkg hastened his cle, leavg the chiseled champ who was once the toast of the gay clubs now livg a cluttered efficiency apartment on Long Island wh his trophi and champnship belts storage bags.

Griffh was gay, and at the weigh- before the fight, Paret had tnted him, llg him a “marin, ” a rogatory Spanish term, siar to “faggot.

THE NIGHT BOXER EE GRIFFH ANSWERED GAY TNTS WH A ADLY RTEGE OF PUNCH

He was a black man and an unrdog, and then he was hangg out gay bars and gettg beaten up by thugs. ”Bentt, the boxer who traed Blanchard, says that Caribbean society is particularly macho and homophobic. Sports Illtrated reported 2005 that Griffh may have been fueled by an anti-gay slur directed at him by Paret durg the weigh-.

Over the years, books and terviews, Griffh scribed himself at var tim as straight, gay and bisexual. "Champn" tells the story of Ee Griffh, a closeted gay boxer an era when gay people were outsts, who ris om obscury to bee world champn, and one of the great tragedi sports history, kills his homophobic archrival the rg. Thanks to a memorable book by José Corpas, we have a history of the remarkable gay boxer known as Al Panama Brown (1902-1950; Black Ink: A Story of Boxg, Betrayal, Homophobia, and the First Lato Champn [Iowa Cy: W By KO Publitns, 2016]) athlet have been reluctant to intify themselv as gay or bisexual bee they have reasonably feared prejudiced reactns.

The implitn is that was his gayns that was the issue. He had to track down the boxer the gay bars and sex clubs of Paris, as Corpas not wh obv disgt (p. Through his journey boxg, Stark has e to anize the World Gay Boxg Champnships (WGBC), the world’s first LGBTQI+ boxg tournament, which will be held Sydney 2023.