Kansas City Chiefs’ Harrison Butker Slammed for Sexist, Homophobic Speech Encouraging Female College Grads to Not Pursue Careers

NFL star Harrison Butker is coming under fire for giving a sexist and homophobic speech at a college graduation ceremony.

Over the weekend, the Kansas City Chiefs kicker gave the commencement address at Benedictine College's graduation ceremony in Atchison, Kansas. During his 20 minutes at the podium, he condemned President Joe Biden, the LGBTQ+ community, COVID policies and leaders in the Catholic faith that are allegedly “pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America.” He even told the female graduates in the audience that a woman's "most important title" should be a "homemaker."

"For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment. You should be proud of all that you have achieved to this point in your young lives," the Super Bowl winner told the crowd. "I want to speak directly to you briefly, because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you. How many of you are sitting here now, about to cross this stage, and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career?"

He continued, "Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother."

Harrison even called out his teammate, Travis Kelce's girlfriend, Taylor Swift by using a lyric in her song "Bejeweled" as a reference. He said, “As my teammate's girlfriend says, ‘Familiarity breeds contempt.'”

He later addressed Pride Month with the comment, "Not the deadly sins sort of Pride that has an entire month dedicated to it, but the true God-centered pride that is cooperating with the holy ghost to glorify him."

It's important to note that the Catholic university nor religious leaders have not released a statement regarding his speech despite the leader of the church in which Harrison and the college practice, Pope Francis, called out the "hypocrisy" of people who criticize the LGBTQ+ community and the church's approval to bless the same-sex marriages.

Watch the speech, below.

In May 2023, Harrison also gave the commencement address at Georgia Institute of Technology sharing the same sentiment of encouraging women to become stay at home wives and mothers instead of going into a career.

The irony of his speeches is the fact that his own mother, Elizabeth Butker, is a physicist at the Department of Radiation Oncology at Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute. She holds a Bachelor's and Master's degrees and continues to practice today.

Following the backlash, an editor on Wikipedia decided to update his page under the “Personal Life” section. “His greatest joy is being the killer of his wife’s dreams and shackling her to a life of being his waitress and nanny.”

See social media reactions to Harrison Butker's commencement speech, below.