It’s a good thing I didn’t hear it until 24 hours later, otherwise there would have been hell to pay.

On the 11 July edition of The O’Reilly Factor, the host, Bill O’Reilly who I consider to be one of the better television personalities around, completely went off the handle-bars.

To make a long story short, here is what happened. The San Diego Padres (MLB) hosted, as many professional sports teams do a special evening for the fans.

The first promotion was called, ‘Out at the Ballpark,’ celebrating gay pride. In that same baseball game, the Padres ran a promotion for kids 12 and under to get a free hat.

As a sports loving American, I can say I have been to my fair share of baseball games; high school, college, minor leagues and professional. At no time have I ever felt like I was being forced to look at anything.

O’Reilly thought differently of this particular turn of events. In his end of the show comments, O’Reilly said that this display by the Padres was, “insensitive […] dumb […] almost unbelievable,” to cluster gay men with children. I have many gay friends who live their lives like they are no different and are not ashamed to show who they are and the love they have.

Yes, the Padres brought attention to the ‘gay agenda’ but in all honesty there is nothing wrong with that. Look at sports history.

Robinson – African Americans start playing in the major leagues. Martina Navratilova – very openly gay tennis player. Billy Jean King – advocate for women’s sports. These athletes were pioneers and I see the same of the Padres.

Sandy Rios of the Culture Campaign was also on the show and said, “U.S. News & World Report came out with a study recently – - talking about how many teens are coming out younger, and more of them are coming out now. Is that what we want?”

In one word, Yes! Of course it’s what we want. We want our children, teens and adults to be proud of who they are and share that with the world.

Love is love and the world needs more of it.