Following some rather moderate, but politically suspect statements about gay relationships and whether they should be portrayed on TV, Juan Pablo Galavis has faced a lot of hysterical screeching from the usual quarters. On one entertainment site, he is being attacked for having gone into arrears on his child support for a child he fathered out of wedlock. Apparently, while he was playing soccer for Miami FC, he got a hot Latina actress named Carla Rodriguez pregnant, and then resigned from his soccer career. That doesn’t sound quite right to me. If he’s 32 today, and he resigned in 2008, then he would have been in his prime when he quit. Somehow, I kind of doubt he resigned from a successful career, but rather was forced to quit because it wasn’t going anywhere. One of my cousins played pro soccer for some time, but a recurrent injury forced him out relatively early. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, but a lot of guys drift a bit after playing pro sports (my cousin was lucky — he found a good job almost immediately).

It seems Juan Pablo and Ms. Rodriguez didn’t last, and he was eventually ordered to pay pay back child support of a few thousand dollars. Not much, really, but enough to be scandalous by the standards of the pop site “Radar“:

The Florida Department of Rev­enue’s Child Support Enforcement Program slapped Juan Pablo with an income deduction order, requiring employers to automatically deduct $243.94 per month for child support, plus $49.00 per month for retroactive child support until the outstanding balance of $3,574.57 was paid.

“Juan Pablo has been hoping that news of his court-ordered child support didn’t get out because he doesn’t want ‘Bach­elor’ fans finding out he’s not the perfect father he portrays himself to be,” a source revealed.

I think this idea that Mr. Galavis is ashamed over owing arrears is ridiculous. There’s no such thing as a “perfect father,” and anyone who has had a kid for a few years knows that. However, there is one reason he might be a bit embarrassed: the award shows his poverty in 2011. At $244/month, his pre-tax earnings under the Florida child support calculator would be about 1,000/month, or below the federal poverty guideline. That figure jumped out at me when I read it, because I was ordered to pay significantly more when I had zero income (imputation). Nevertheless, Washington state actually has a lower guideline than Florida.

So it looks like Ms. Rodriguez had a child with him, and then moved on because he was broke, possibly in an attempt to pursue the “alpha fux beta bux” strategy. Seeing him on Bachelor is probably driving her absolutely batty right now. I can only imagine the calls she is making to lawyers in an attempt to jack up the child support through the stratosphere. Poor Galavis — he’s in for a rough time in court after this show.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t pay much attention to this celebrity stuff, but this gay thing is getting out of hand, and it’s impossible to avoid it these days. Despite being quite tolerant in my personal life, I’m starting to have second thoughts about whether this official celebration and promotion of homosexuality is harmless after all. If one can’t even publicly voice skepticism about gay marriage – which I think is a contradiction in terms – then who is truly “intolerant?”