Women ‘don’t need’ Harrison Butker after controversial speech, says Serena Williams
Serena Williams has slammed Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, saying women “don’t need” him after he controversially railed against Pride Month, working women and abortion rights during a commencement speech at his May graduation.
The 23-time tennis grand slam winner faced off against Butker when she spoke onstage at the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly (Espy) awards ceremony on Thursday, along with her sister Venus Williams – the seven-time tennis grand slam winner – and Abbott Elementary actor Quinta Brunson.
Venus Williams closed the segment by urging the audience to “just enjoy women’s sports like you enjoy any other sport – because they are sports.”
Serena Williams then joined the conversation: “Except for you, Harrison Butker. We don’t need you.”
With Butker present, Brunson added, “Not at all, never.”
Butker drew widespread criticism—except from those on the American political right—over his May 11 commencement speech at Benedictine College, a private Catholic liberal arts school in Atchison, Kansas. He dismissed Pride Month—which celebrates LGBTQ+ achievements each June—as a “deadly sin” and argued that some Catholic leaders were “fostering dangerous gender ideologies on America’s youth.”
During the roughly 20-minute speech, the three-time Super Bowl champion also claimed that the “most important” role a woman should take on is that of a homemaker.
Butker addressed the female graduates, saying, “Some of you may go on to have successful careers in the world. But I would wager that most of you are most excited about your marriages and the children you will bring into the world.”
Butker also said that access to abortion – what most Americans support despite its abolition as a nationwide right by the US Supreme Court in June 2022 – the result of the “pervasiveness of disorder”.
The 28-year-old’s speech sparked a firestorm of criticism, prompting the NFL to issue a statement distancing itself from his comments, which it said went against the professional football league’s “commitment to inclusivity.”
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Butker’s superstar teammates Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes openly expressed their disagreement with him.
The placekicker later said he regretted expressing his views, saying, “If it wasn’t clear before that timeless Catholic values are hated by many, it is now.”
Still, American conservatives rallied behind Butker despite the negative reactions to his speech, making his jersey one of the best-selling jerseys on NFL.com.