NBA Sells Rainbow Shirts to Raise Money for Gay Organization That Instructed HS Students in ‘Fisting’

The NBA launched a marketing campaign for 30 shirts bearing rainbow-colored team logos to benefit a controversial homosexual-advocacy group.

“In celebration of LGBT Pride Month, we’re excited to announce a new collaboration between the NBA, GLSEN, and Teespring,” the three groups proclaimed. “Beginning on June 7, fans can purchase an exclusive line of Teespring NBA Pride T-shirts featuring the logos of all 30 NBA teams, with all proceeds benefiting GLSEN.”

GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, pushes discussions of homosexuality in K-12 schools. At one infamous conference sponsored by the group, speakers explained the practice of “fisting” to high school students and at another a retired gym teacher detailed how she told students in kindergarten that she kisses her girlfriend.

In 2009, 53 Republican congressmen wrote a letter objecting to President Barack Obama appointing GLSEN’s founder, Kevin Jennings, to lead the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. They wrote the president:

Mr. Jennings’ self-described history of ignoring the sexual abuse of a child. In his book, One Teacher in Ten, Mr. Jennings recounts a 15-year old student confiding in him that he had a sexual relationship with a much older man. Mr. Jennings’ only response was to ask if the underage boy used a condom. As a mandatory reporter, Mr. Jennings was required by law to report child abuse, including sex crimes. Mr. Jennings cannot serve as the “safe schools” czar when his record demonstrates a willingness to overlook the sexual abuse of a child.

Despite the group’s creepy history, the NBA raises money for it. The peculiar mixing of politics and basketball follows the NBA threatening to pull the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte because of North Carolina’s law restricting multiple-use public bathrooms in government buildings to people of the sex indicted by the insignia on the door and the league selling shirts infusing environmentalist imagery onto team  logos as part of its “green” NBA program that funnels money to activist groups.

Under Commissioner Adam Silver, the league increasingly involves itself in politicized campaigns atop traditional community outreach under its “NBA Cares” banner. The league explains, “NBA Cares is the league’s global social responsibility program that builds on the NBA’s mission of addressing important social issues in the United States and around the world.”

Among organizations supporting sick kids and after-school programs for children, GLSEN receives inclusion by the NBA in non sequitur fashion in its list of charitable endeavors. The league, in boasting gifts of $270 million since 2005, notes: “NBA Cares works with internationally-recognized youth-serving programs that support education, youth and family development, and health-related causes, including: Special Olympics, YMCA of the USA, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, UNICEF, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Share Our Strength and GLSEN.”