Curt Schilling shared what many called an anti-transgender meme photo on Facebook this week, placing the former baseball star in hot water.
On Tuesday, the retired Boston Red Sox star turned ESPN baseball analyst waded into the so-called North Carolina "bathroom bill" controversy,
WEEI-FM reported.
The meme photo he posted showed what appeared to be a biologically male person in women's clothing. Inscribed on the picture were the words, "Let him in! To the restroom with your daughter or else you're a narrow minded, judgmental, unloving, racist bigot who needs to die!!!"
North Carolina's Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, passed last month, banned individuals from using public bathrooms that do not correspond to their biological sex. It also prevents local governments from enacting ordinances than allow people to use a restroom corresponding to their gender identity,
noted CNN.
Schilling followed up the meme
with a blog post.
"This latest brew ha ha is beyond hilarious," Schilling wrote. "I didn't post that ugly looking picture. I made a comment about the basic functionality of men's and women's restrooms, period.
"See here's the thing. I do NOT care what color you are, what race, what sex, who you sleep with, what you wear. I don't care and I never have. I have opinions, but they're just that, opinions."
Schilling told WEEI-FM that he received a call from ESPN about the post and that he was expecting further conversation on Wednesday. He told the radio station that he did not think his comments were political in nature.
"I was kind of blindsided by this one," Schilling said. "When I got the call I was like, 'I don't get this. How did this become that?' I assume I'll be talking with some people today.
"When did having an opinion become a cause for possibly losing your job or getting suspended? I stated a fact. Men's bathrooms were designed for people that stand up, and women's weren't," Schilling continued.
CNN reported that the baseball star was previously suspended by ESPN from his baseball analyst duties after reposted an Internet meme that compared radical Muslims with Nazis that read, "It's said only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How'd that go?"
The text was superimposed over a red-tinted photo of Adolf Hitler with Schilling adding "The math is staggering when you get to true #'s."