So I am a Blue Jays fun (DUH), but this weekend, Yunel Escobar wrote the Spanish equivalent of “you’re a f——-” on his face and it took a fan (an awesome fan named James) posting it on Flickr TODAY (two days later) to actually get any attention.

First of all, WHAT?! What if James hadn’t? Would this gross terrible homophobic word stay unnoticed? And remained ignored and unacknowledged by the coaches, players, umpires, managers, staff, etc. etc. etc. who saw it for THREE HOURS on the field and just let it happen.?It’s disgusting. And terrible. And makes me disrespect and dislike anyone who didn’t call him out and try to deter it.

Second of all, fans are dropping the “context” bomb. As in “we’re missing the context.” WHAT CONTEXT. IN WHAT CONTEXT WOULD THIS HAVE BEEN OKAY. A word is a word is a word. And while it might not “mean the same” in another language, [game show buzzer meaning NOPE], WRONG. Bottom line: he used a derogatory, terrible word as some “hilarious” insult — the same word that is often the first or last thing the victim of a hate crime will hear before getting attacked by bigots.

True, there are two sides to every story. But ignorance — which is literally the only reason he must have to have gone through with something like this — is the reason why hate crimes and intolerance exist in the first place. It’s 2012. “I didn’t know” isn’t an acceptable answer for anything anymore.

So regardless of why Yunel did this or why nobody said anything, everyone — as in humans who support other humans and don’t want to see them hurt — deserve an apology. And not just a pre-written, glorified press release. One that uses this situation as the basis for ACTUAL improvement. I don’t think it’d be the worst thing in the world if the Jays stepped up their LGBT support right about now — at the very least, it will help their players and their camps who clearly aren’t educated in the value of equality.