The young player grew up in the Czech Republic and played for that league until this year when he was drafted 13th by the Maple Leafs.The pictures have been splattered all over the internet of a harmless tongue touch between 19-year-old Toronto Maple Leaf forward Jiri Tlusty and his buddy, but the racier naked picture is what has caught the attention of his Canadian team.
The club has threatened legal action against sites which are posting the self-shot naked photo, and unfortunately, Tlusty has to defend his heterosexuality from some creative journalism.
The young player grew up in the Czech Republic and played for that league until this year when he was drafted 13th by the Maple Leafs.
Early this week, the tabloid blog www.isthishappening.com posted what seemed like normal pictures of a teenager horsing around with his friends, but the blog suggested that Tlusty was gay.
Tlusty released a statement saying he was neither gay nor bisexual and that he used “poor judgment in this instance last season. I have learned a valuable lesson. It will not happen again and I have no further comment.”
The bigger shock came when naked pictures of the boy were sent to a female admirer over the internet and were also posted on the website.
Leafs general manager John Ferguson stated, “photographs were posted recently on the Internet without Jiri’s knowledge or consent.
“He made a naive mistake as a teenager. It’s a lesson in how something private can easily become very public in the Internet age. Hopefully it’s a lesson that other people will learn from as well.”
Many fans, both gay and straight, are upset that the photos have even warranted a response when they were obviously not homosexual in nature, but in the internet age, creating controversy seems to be king.
Dylan Vox © 2007 GayWired.com; All Rights Reserved.
