NBA player Jason Collins received plenty of support from the professional sports community after coming out as gay in a Sports Illustrated cover story this week.
For many athletes, that support came via Twitter. Former Green Bay Packers safety LeRoy Butler was one of those athletes, tweeting a message of congratulations to Collins.
It was a gesture of goodwill that led to some trouble. We'll let Butler explain ...
Wow, I was schedule to speak at a church in WI, and a member said that the pastor wants to cancel my event, I said ok why?
- LeRoy Butler (@leap36) April 30, 2013
Then I was told, because I said congrats to Jason Collins on twitter, I said really? we have a contract, he said check the moral cause,
- LeRoy Butler (@leap36) April 30, 2013
FYI the fee was 8500$,then I was told if i removed the tweet, and apologize and ask god forgiveness, I can have the event, I said no,
- LeRoy Butler (@leap36) April 30, 2013
Butler elaborated on the situation Wednesday in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
"This is what bothers me the most," Butler said. "They said, 'If you ask for forgiveness and remove the tweet and you say something to the effect that you don't congratulate (Collins) then we'll let you do the engagement and get the speaker's fee,' and I said, 'I'm not doing that.'
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"Every gay and lesbian person will say, 'You know, LeRoy doesn't speak up for the weak or the silenced. He doesn't stand for anything as a man and he did it for money.' Why would you ask me to reduce my integrity like that?"
Butler later tweeted he received an apology from the church but said it was "mainly thanking me for not releasing the church name."
That sounds about right.
Follow Dan Hanzus on Twitter @DanHanzus.