McCartney’s Views on Homosexuality Draw Fire : Football: The Colorado coach is criticized for using his position to gain publicity for a fundamentalist group.

Bill McCartney, who became a hero for turning around a losing football team at Colorado, is being jeered for using his title and popularity to preach evangelical Christian views against homosexuality.

McCartney’s remarks and the resulting outrage have placed university President Judith Albino in a quandary.

Do McCartney’s rights to free speech end when he uses his title as a football coach at a public university to espouse his views? Should he be muzzled for criticizing a lifestyle while appearing as a coach?

Many students say yes.

“This university must keep this man in line!” senior Samantha Levine said. “He has demonstrated time and time again that he needs to be kept on a leash. He is using his position to create an atmosphere of hate and fear on this campus.”

McCartney, 51, revived a moribund Colorado football program in 1982 and led the team to a share of the national championship in 1990. Outside work, he said, he feels he should take a stand on homosexuality.

“I may be just a football coach, but I’m not going to stand aside on the tough issues facing society,” he said.

McCartney first voiced anti-homosexual beliefs in support of a group called Colorado for Family Values, which is collecting signatures to put an initiative on the November ballot to ban special legislation protecting homosexuals.

The coach is a member of the group’s advisory board, and his name appears--with his title--on its pamphlets. A former Roman Catholic, McCartney joined the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Longmont, a fundamentalist, nondenominational church, in 1989.

Albino reprimanded him last month for violating university policy by using his position to support a personal cause. After a long meeting with Albino, McCartney said he would “be more careful about where that title goes.” But he said he wouldn’t back off.

At a news conference, McCartney called homosexuals “a group of people who don’t reproduce, yet want to be compared with people who do reproduce.” Citing the Bible, he said his “personal feeling is that there is sin involved here.” Homosexuals, he said, “burn with lust.”

Regents, faculty members and others were outraged. Rep. Pat Schroeder (D-Colo.) accused McCartney of “hate-mongering” and called him a “self-anointed ayatollah.” Students protested.

Christof Kheim, a Student Union co-executive, said the student government was “absolutely disgusted” by McCartney’s comments.

Not even football players have spoken up in support of the coach. McCartney said his mail has been “95% to 98% supportive, but the editorials are 90% against.”

Some have called for McCartney’s ouster, although it would be costly for the university to buy out his 1990 contract. He signed a 15-year deal worth about $360,000 per year, plus raises.

The furor isn’t McCartney’s first brush with controversy. Three years ago, he endorsed the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue. Earlier, when two student athletes were accused of date rape, he said rape is limited to violent acts.

McCartney said he doesn’t regret any of his words, and he rejected any responsibility for the hostility they have generated.