Killer Punch of a Secretly Gay Boxer

Contents:

• EE GRIFFH, WHO FAMOLY KILLED FELLOW BOXER AFTER GAY SLUR, DI AT 75
• EE GRIFFH: BOXER KILLED OPPONENT WHO LLED HIM GAY
• KILLER PUNCH OF A SECRETLY GAY BOXER
• THE NIGHT BOXER EE GRIFFH ANSWERED GAY TNTS WH A ADLY RTEGE OF PUNCH

EE GRIFFH, WHO FAMOLY KILLED FELLOW BOXER AFTER GAY SLUR, DI AT 75

Sports Illtrated reported 2005 that Griffh may have been fueled by an anti-gay slur directed at him by Paret durg the weigh-. Over the years, books and terviews, Griffh scribed himself at var tim as straight, gay and bisexual. Griffh knocked out his opponent the 12th round, but Paret fell to a a and later died om his than 40 years on, 2005, the magaze Sports Illtrated reported that Griffh may have been revved up by a homophobic slight directed at him by Paret durg the weigh- for a prev enunter the rg.

Acrdg to the magaze, Paret had “swished his limp wrist and hissed that word, marin [a pejorative Spanish term for homosexual]” make matters worse, Paret had won that earlier bout on a ntroversial spl cisn, regag the welterweight crown that Griffh had taken om him Miami April 1961. “I thk we jt saw a gay murr, ” someone murmured to Pete Hal, verg the fight for the New York Post.

EE GRIFFH: BOXER KILLED OPPONENT WHO LLED HIM GAY

Although Griffh, wh his flutg, high-pched voice and effemate manner, had been the subject of mours for years, would have been unthkable for him to e out as gay the ultra-macho world of profsnal boxg the early 1960s. In 1992 he was vicly beaten and almost killed on a New York street after leavg a gay bar, but was never clear if the attack had been motivated by Alphonse Griffh was born on Febary 3, 1938 on St Thomas the Amerin Virg Islands, one of eight children, and beme a boxer by accint. But I don't like that word: homosexual, gay or faggot.

In a 1962 tle match wh Benny Paret, Paret asslted Griffh by touchg his butt while makg homophobic remarks. He habed two worlds – the unrground gay scene New York the 60s and the macho world of boxg.

In “Champn, ” which premiered 2013, Blanchard reunts how an environment of hyper-masculy and homophobia led to that fatal night at Madison Square Garn and how Griffh was hnted by for the rt of his life. His fal Nelson as an unnamed man a gay bar and Ryan Speedo Green as young Ee Howard / Met OperaWhile Act II foc on Griffh’s twilight years and his stggl wh mentia and juri om a btal attack outsi of a gay bar the 1990s, the openg act foc on the boxer’s early life and his rivalry wh Paret.

KILLER PUNCH OF A SECRETLY GAY BOXER

Usg what he’s learned over a -long pivot to posg operas, after makg a name for himself wh stud albums and 30 years’ worth of film sr for Spike Lee, Blanchard add sectns for the productn’s more-than-40-person chos and two new arias, which are played by a full orchtra and jazz ensemble nducted by Yannick Nézet-Ségu, the Metropolan Opera’s first openly gay mic director. Griffh was gay, and at the weigh- before the fight, Paret had tnted him, llg him a “marin, ” a rogatory Spanish term, siar to “faggot.

THE NIGHT BOXER EE GRIFFH ANSWERED GAY TNTS WH A ADLY RTEGE OF PUNCH

He was a black man and an unrdog, and then he was hangg out gay bars and gettg beaten up by thugs.

”Bentt, the boxer who traed Blanchard, says that Caribbean society is particularly macho and homophobic. But at the time, he did not nsir himself gay, or straight, or anythg. ”Had Griffh’s outrage at Paret’s homophobia tensified his fightg?

As historian Rondone pots out, there were no openly gay policians or celebri at the time, and homosexualy was fed by doctors as an illns. Those who were outed agast their will were forced to rign their posts and sometim arrted on “moraly charg, ” as was the se two years after the fight, when Print Johnson’s clost ai was arrted and forced to retire the wake of a gay-sex stg.