The former Cowboys wide receiver is on the cover of Out magazine this month, and the interview inside concerns his support for marriage equality. He is taking a stand, based on his relationship with his brother, Vaughn, who died in 2006. Irvin found out his brother was gay in the 1970s, which, he says, led to some of his bad behavior, as he tried to come to grips with his own hang-ups. It’s a revealing and honest look at Irvin. Two money quotes:
“And through it all we realized maybe some of the issues I’ve had with so many women, just bringing women around so everybody can see, maybe that’s the residual of the fear I had that if my brother is wearing ladies’ clothes, am I going to be doing that? Is it genetic? I’m certainly not making excuses for my bad decisions. But I had to dive inside of me to find out why am I making these decisions, and that came up.”
and
“I don’t see how any African-American, with any inkling of history, can say that you don’t have the right to live your life how you want to live your life. No one should be telling you who you should love, no one should be telling you who you should be spending the rest of your life with. When we start talking about equality, and everybody being treated equally, I don’t want to know an African-American who will say everybody doesn’t deserve equality.”
