Charles Barkley speaks at Morehouse College (Photo by Mo Barnes for rolling out)
NBA legend Charles Barkley continues to be forceful and vehement in his outspoken defense of the LBGTQ+ community.
Barkley reemphasized his staunch support in the aftermath of the significant backlash that Anheuser-Busch has received for using a transgender celebrity to market their Bud Light beers.
The New York Times reported that Anheuser-Busch’s profits have plummeted by 29 percent from the same time last year. The bestselling beer company in the nation for over two decades, since been supplanted from the summit by Modelo Especial.
Armed with this information, Barkley bucked back hard at a celebrity party.
At a nightclub in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, for the American Century Celebrity golf tournament, Barkley garnered rousing cheers for being vehement and resolute in his defense of the community.
“I want you all to drink this f—–g beer, I want you all to drink this beer, I got three cases of Bud Light,” said Barkley who obviously had consumed a few of the beers himself. “Hey, and I want to say this. If you’re gay, bless you, if you’re transgender, bless you. And if you have a problem with that, f— you!”
Charles Barkley: “If you are gay or transgender, I love you. And if anybody gives you sh*t, you tell em Charles says ‘f**k you!’”
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) July 16, 2022
This is far from the first time Barkley has lambasted anti-LGBT proponents. Most notably, the “Round Mound of Rebound” spoke out against a North Carolina law that barred transgender people from using the bathroom marked with gender identity and required them to use the laboratory that corresponded with their biological sex.
Barkley also successfully challenged the NBA to relocate the 2017 All-Star Game because of that law.
“I think anytime you’re Black, you got to stand up for other people because you – Black people know what discrimination is like. And if you’re in a position of power, you got to always stand up against discrimination. And I’m blessed man, and … I’m never gonna sit back and let discrimination happen on my watch,” Barkley explained on the now-defunct “Ellen DeGeneres Show” in 2020.
