West Virginia head men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins used a homophobic slur in a radio interview on Monday. Since then, Huggins has apologized and WVU Athletics released a statement condemning Huggins’ words and saying this situation is being addressed.
Morgantown Pride, a social and nonprofit who provides resources and tries to enrich the community of the value of LGBTQ+ people. In a statement they released on Twitter, they called for Huggins’ resignation to come immediately.
“Morgantown Pride is horrified and disgusted by the rhetoric espoused by Coach Bob Huggins,” their statement began.
They continued saying, “Morgantown Pride calls for WVU Athletics to at a bare minimum schedule a safe zone training for Bob Huggins and the rest of his staff. We believe this incident requires the termination of Bob Huggins as this type of rhetoric creates a space in which students, community members and most especially players are not safe. However if WVU Athletics chooses the wrong path and does not ask Bob Huggins to resign, the culture that he has obviously cultivated in which individuals feel so comfortable saying homophobic slurs that they would do so whilst being interviewed, requires significant investment of both time and labor to correct.”
Fairness West Virginia, a statewide civil rights advocacy organizations which is dedicated to the fair treatment of the LGBTQ community in West Virginia also released a statement saying there needs to be action and it needs to be more than just his apology.
“His apology was a good first step, but now he needs to show us his words are not empty.” The groups statement also said they will offer Huggins and the rest of WVU Athletics their time to help educate them on “the impact of his comments and to understand the harm that these slurs cause.”
