Herald's Bob Kraft article draws homophobic web comments

A recent Boston Herald article announcing that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft will be keynote speaker at an LGBT networking event hosted by Boston Spirit Magazine attracted a slew of unsolicited homophobic comments online.

While several comments were deleted by the Herald, citing that their content did not follow the website's posting guidelines, remaining remarks include, "Unreal get right with God, this country is going to S--t. God help us!"; "Isn't that wonderful, more lip service to all the freaks of our diverse society. Makes you want to throw up in your mouth"; "Tight Ends and Wide recievers will be on hand to answer questions after the symposium"; and "die in a fire" [sic].

"It's unfortunate that some people in society still feel the need to preach such hatred, whether it is homophobia, racism, or any other type of bigotry or discrimination," said Boston Spirit Magazine publisher David Zimmerman. "However, the fact remains that the people who chose to post negative comments on the Boston Herald website represent a very small portion of the Herald's readers and an even smaller portion of Massachusetts citizens.

"In a conversation I had recently with Steve Buckley, the Herald sports columnist who recently came out, he told me that he has received nearly 3,000 emails and '99.99% of them were positive and supportive.' To me, that speaks much louder than the 40 to 50 morons commenting on the Herald website."

Read the full Herald article at http://bit.ly/f40qRI.