Student Kicked Off Football Team for Kissing His Boyfriend
ByA freshman linebacker of North Dakota State College of Sciences claims that the team coach kicked him off the team because he was seen kissing his boyfriend.
Jamie Kuntz, who had a concussion, was kept off the field, but, NBC Sports' Rick Chandler reports that he traveled with the team to Pueblo, Colo., for the season opener Sept. 1. He was watching the game from the press box where he was seen kissing his boyfriend.
According to the same NBC report, when the coach Chuck Parsons asked about the incident, Kuntz initially lied about the kiss, and said that he was not gay. But after returning to campus, Kuntz emailed the coach and admitted that he was gay, and that he was sorry he lied.
The next morning he was sacked from the team, for being 'detrimental' and 'distraction' to the team.
"He said he didn't care what people did in their personal lives," recalls Kuntz, "but it was a big mistake to do that on a football trip. I said, yeah, I made a big mistake and I apologized again for lying. Then he handed me a letter and said he was kicking me off the team because what I did was 'detrimental' to the team and I was a 'distraction.'"
But, a LGBT activist, Dan Savage says it was the homophobia of the college and the coach that resulted in the sacking.
The public college based in Wahpeton is sticking with the coach's decision by saying that Kuntz was dismissed not because of his sexual orientation, but for violating the school's rules.
Savage told HuffPost Gay Voices that other members of Kuntz's team have been caught drinking, while some others have 'criminal charges and convictions,' yet they get to remain on the team.
While the reason behind the dismissal is still being debated, few media outlets are steering the debate towards one more potential reason, the age of his boyfriend-18-year old Kuntz's boyfriend happens to be a 65-year old man.
However, Kuntz is insistent that his boyfriend's age has nothing to do with the episode.
"I don't think it matters how old he is. If it would've been an older woman, I would've been congratulated for it," he said to HuffPost Gay Voices.
Meanwhile, Kuntz has withdrawn from NDSCS and will be moving to a bigger city. He said football was the sole reason for his presence in the college. He is hoping to transfer to University of Minnesota or the University of Colorado.