GLAAD Demands CNN Fire Roland Martin for Homophobic Tweets

If you watched the Super Bowl on Sunday you may have been more captivated by a black-and-white commercial that showed soccer superstar David Beckham modeling underwear for his new H&M line than for the game itself. The ad worked up a number of women -- and not-so-few men -- across the country. One of them was CNN's Roland Martin, who tweeted about the commercial.

"If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham's H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him!" the on-air sportscaster wrote. Martin currently has more than 95,000 followers on the social networking site.

Martin is a columnist, an author and a commentator for "TV One." He's also a CNN contributor and has been a guest on a number of shows, including "Anderson Coopers AC360," "No Bull," "The Situation Room," and others.

Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) immediately took issue with Martin's remarks. The group is asking for the cable news network to remove him from its on-air talent roster. The organization tweeted, "@rolandsmartin Advocates of gay bashing have no place at @CNN #SuperBowl #LGBT." Martin replied to GLAAD and tweeted, "@glaad @CNN well you're clearly out of touch and clueless with what I tweeted. Way to assume, but you're way off base."

The commentator then defended himself to a number of people who called him homophobic and said that his tweet was aimed towards soccer fans and not against gays. GLAAD, however, did not buy it.

"Martin has a history of anti-LGBT views," a statement from the organization said. "GLAAD is calling on him to be fired, joining many other LGBT activists and bloggers."

Before the controversial tweet, Martin took to his Facebook fan page and wrote, "Who the hell was that New England Patriot they just showed in a head to toe pink suit? Oh, he needs a visit from #teamwhipdatass." GLAAD's statement also noted that Martin defended Tracy Morgan when the comedian said, "He'd stab his son to death if he said he was gay."

"Say I'm wrong. Fine. Say I'm insensitive to gays and lesbians. Fine. I'll wait for the usual bigots to say that I'm defending Tracy Morgan because he's black. Fine," he wrote in a blog post. "Sorry, if I'm being honest here and not focusing on political correctness. I just believe that many of you would be shocked and amazed that you laughed hysterically at some of the most sexist, homophobic, racist stuff imaginable by comedians of all shapes, sizes, ethnic backgrounds, genders and sexual orientations."

In its latest salvo against Martin, GLAAD is pointing out anew that he wrote on his website in 2006 that he supports "ex-gay" programs and that his wife "has counseled many men and women to walk away from the gay lifestyle."

"Martin's tweets today advocating violence against gay people weren't an accident," the GLAAD statement said. "They are a part of a larger pattern for Martin."

Watch the David Beckham commercial below: