One more reason to hate ESPN: Radio hosts' insensitive blast of transsexual athlete comes under fire

We've come fairly far as a sports society in blotting out bigotry and ignorance, and yet there are still instances when 2012 reeks of 1865. Case in point: The conversation had by radio hosts Steve Czaban, Andy Pollin and Chris Knoche last Thursday about college basketball player Gabrielle Ludwig.

USA Today's Eric Prisbell wrote a powerful and lengthy feature on Ludwig, a transsexual athlete who made her debut for tiny Mission College (Santa Clara, Calif.) a couple of weeks ago in a California tournament. Prisbell's story makes Ludwig's heartbreaking journey clear, with passages outlining her "one failed suicide attempt, two failed marriages; one 19-year-old daughter who insists on calling her dad, two girls who insist on calling her Momma Gabbi."

And yet the three amigos on ESPN 980 in Washington D.C. called her something besides a survivor. They called Ludwig "it."

In their attempt to make some sort of point, though it's not clear exactly what that point is, Czaban, Pollin and Knoche crossed a line. Commenting on a photo of Ludwig, one quipped, "That's a man, baby" in his best Austin Powers voice, and "That could be a Russian chick."

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/radio-hosts-insensitive-blast-of-transsexual-athlete-comes-under-fire-151500782.html