Closing The Book On This Whole Manny Pacquiao / Gay Marriage Flap

This whole Manny Pacquiao/gay marriage thing should've been a tiny blip in the boxing discussion, but it wasn't. So what can we learn from it?

1. The Examiner's fleet of search engine-optimizing writers don't always write in the most clear fashion. No surprise there. Nobody who was a party to the offending interview in question thinks Pacquiao said anything about killing gay people, no matter how ambiguously Granville Ampong wrote it.
2. Ampong deserves blame for writing it the way he did, but so too do people who overinterpreted Pacquiao's supposed remarks when there were never any quotation marks around it coming out of Pacquiao's mouth.
3. Pacquiao does oppose gay marriage, and that is enough for some people to label him homophobic. Some other people think Pacquiao is just like a lot of other people in opposing gay marriage, and those people don't catch as much flack. But what caught my eye originally was him invoking Sodom and Gomorrah. You know, the part of the Bible where, as widely interpreted, God burned down a town over some gayness. If you basically think the world will end because of gay marriage, I guess time will tell, and you're entitled to that view. But it does come off like you're scared of gay people, however justified you believe your view to be. (Although maybe I misinterpreted what he meant by saying "Sodom" and "Gomorrah?")
4. Some people were offended about Paquiao criticizing President Obama, in however roundabout way he did it, which doesn't make it wrong but isn't super-wise of the congressman from the Philippines. There's this idea that Pac somehow isn't entitled to criticize the leadership of this country just because he's not from here that's unjustified to me. On the other hand, it's a PR misstep for Pac to think that it isn't going to tick some folk off. 'Merica, f**k yeah!
5. Pacquiao holds Bible study 800 times a day or something, and talks about his religion all the time, but says he still hasn't read Leviticus. Wouldn't the people going to Pacquiao's Bible study with him be better off learning it via an online diploma mill or something?
6. The supposed double standard about Pacquiao's wrongdoings getting more media scrutiny and condemnation compared to Floyd Mayweather's just narrowed. This was a full-blown media storm, complete with Pacquiao being banned from shopping malls and national news organization attention. Mayweather has earned harsh media treatment, as I wrote here, but Pacquiao's aura of good guy sheen is starting to chip away.
7. Floyd Mayweather is either a cheap shot artist or has somehow seen the light. We know he's not above cheap shots in the ring, of course, but his decision to endorse gay marriage the same day Pacquiao was catching heat for it doesn't jive with him just a few weeks ago getting all upset about Miguel Cotto sleeping in a bed with a man, or before that calling his own father a "faggot," or even before that calling Pacquiao himself a "faggot." Now, an instant conversion in light of Obama now supporting gay marriage, prompted by Jay-Z supporting gay marriage (after calling people "faggots" in music all the time) could be the latest chip to fall in the hip-hop-ish community taking cues from a black president they idolize and overcoming said community's long-term affiliation with homophobia... and it'll spread to boxing as a whole, another community where homophobia is rampant... hmmm, no, the timing is fishy. Probably a cheap shot.