Radio Host Takes Leave of Absence After His Station Calls Him a 'F*g'

A radio host who was called a “fag” by his own station’s Twitter account after coming out has decided to take a leave of absence from his job.

Seth Dunlap, a sportscaster for WWL in New Orleans, shared an open letter to Drew Brees earlier this month sharing his concern about the quarterback’s decision to work with anti-LGBTQ group Focus on the Family. Specifically, Dunlap voiced concern over Brees’ placing the blame on the LGBTQ community for holding him accountable for working with a group that has vehemently fought against our rights for many years.

And in his letter, Dunlap himself came out as gay.

“I am a gay man who has worked nearly two decades in the sports media industry,” he wrote. “My personal experience, not headlines or Twitter innuendo, caused me to recoil at your initial video, and become even further flummoxed at your response today.”

But things took an exceptionally strange turn when the WWL Twitter account retweeted a completely unrelated tweet of Dunlap’s and called him a fag.

The tweet was deleted, and the station claims they are investigating “how this occurred.”

Dunlap took a couple days to decompress before announcing that he would be taking a leave of absence from his show as a result of the incident.

“Living as an openly gay man in the Deep South with a career in sports broadcasting, a career field that is traditionally highly homophobic, is incomprehensibly challenging,” he wrote.

“I never wanted to be ‘That Gay Sportscaster.’ I’ve only ever wanted to be an exceptional sports broadcaster who happens to be gay…The focus has always been on doing my job and doing it well. I feel like that focus has been unceremoniously ripped away from me.”

Dunlap also clarified that he loves his job and does not plan on leaving sports broadcasting, but rather, needs some time for his “emotional and mental well-being.” He says he plans on speaking about the whole incident further at some point in the near future.