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Culliver to attend sensitivity training, volunteer with at-risk LGBT youth

Culliver to attend sensitivity training, volunteer with at-risk LGBT youth

NEW ORLEANS — San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver will begin sensitivity training and education immediately after the Super Bowl following his anti-gay remarks this week, then begin volunteer work with at-risk homosexual youth nationwide.

Culliver is scheduled to begin working with “The Trevor Project,” an organization that provides crisis and suicide intervention to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth, according to his public relations representative, Theodore Palmer.

Chris Culliver

“He’s so passionate about youth and people being comfortable with who they are and accepted by all,” Palmer said in a phone interview Saturday. “He’s excited to learn. The plan is with The Trevor Project, and their concerns are that he is genuine about his words.”

Palmer said Culliver will spend time volunteering at a crisis center in San Francisco.

“It’s just an opportunity for him to learn about his comments and educate himself about the LGBT co mmunity, and grow,” Palmer said. “It’s the first step in learning about his words.”

During Tuesday’s Super Bowl media day at the Superdome, the second-year defender responded to questions from comedian Artie Lange by saying he wouldn’t welcome a gay player in the locker room.

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He also said the 49ers didn’t have any homosexual players and, if they did, those players should leave. He later apologized, facing a large group of media members for nearly an hour Thursday.

He realizes some will still question his sincerity.

“I hope people understand because it’s coming directly from me and I’m talking to the whole world,” Culliver said. “It is not (how I feel) in my heart.”

The 49ers — who play the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday — released a statement saying they rejected Culliver’s comments, and CEO Jed York vowed to take a leadership role with the LGBT community and groups back home in the Bay Area — including taking Culliver around himself, he said.

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