This post has been updated.
An effort to keep openly gay athletes from playing in the National Football League has gained little traction in Congress, and even one of the House’s most conservative members, Rep. Steve King (R-IA), said he wouldn’t support such legislation.
“I think what it amounts to is the locker room in the NFL is full of women reporters, so it’s kind of hard to make an argument against a gay person in there, whatever their gender,” King told the Huffington Post on Thursday.
King opposes same-sex marriage and authored a bill in 2012 that would have kept military facilities from hosting same-sex marriages.
The draft legislation, written by conservative lobbyist and CEO of Burkman Associates LLC, Jack Burkman, would ban openly gay football players from joining a team in the NFL unless that team “provides facilities for homosexual players which are entirely separate and distinct from the facilities used by heterosexual players.”
Burkman told the Huffington Post that he has only gotten the support of a few members of the House and one senator, but he would not provide names.
At least one of Burkman’s clients has left his firm over the draft bill. DC Solar Solution, a California-based company, told Time Magazine that it would no longer be working with Burkman.
“DC solar does not condone or support Mr. Burkman’s homophobic views, and since learning about his misguided efforts to write legislation banning gay athletes from the NFL, we have ended our relationship with him,” DC Solar executives Jeffery Carpoff and Paulette Carpoff wrote in a statement to Time.
Michael Sam, the NFL-hopeful who came out as gay earlier this month, condemned Burkman’s bill on Tuesday.
