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By Shannon Power
Pop Culture & Entertainment Reporter
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Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker's controversial commencement speech was "f***** horrible" and "made graduation feel a little less special" for one student in the audience.
The conservative Catholic NFL player has been criticized for his speech to graduating students at Benedictine College in Kansas, in which he first took aim at the LGBTQ+ communities by referring to "dangerous gender ideologies" and told the female students that a woman's "most important title" should be "homemaker."
Susannah Leisegang, a graphics design major, was in the audience and one a few people who booed loudly during Butker's speech. She shared her thoughts on TikTok in a video that has been viewed more than 106,000 times. It was also posted to X, formerly Twitter, where it has been seen almost 780,000 times.
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Newsweek reached out to Butker by email and Leisegang via social media for comment.
"He was f***** horrible and some of us did boo. Me and my roommate definitely did. There was a standing ovation from everyone in the room, except from me, my roommate and about 10 to 15 other women," Leisegang began.
She told her followers "to keep in mind" that Benedictine is "a Catholic and conservative college," and many of the people in the room, mainly men, agreed with Butker's opinions.
"But it was horrible. Most of the women were looking back and forth at each other, 'like what the f*** is going on?'" Leisegang said, then slammed Butker's decision to use the speech to speak only about politics and his ideological views.
"I'm excited for what my career brings me, and no, I'm not a f***** homemaker...it definitely made graduation feel a little less special knowing I had to sit through that and get told I'm nothing but a homemaker."
Butker quoted lyrics from singer Taylor Swift, who he referred to as his "teammate's girlfriend" (Swift is dating Chiefs' tight end Travis Kelce), right before telling the female students they'd been fed lies.
"For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment. I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolic lies told to you," Butker said.
"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 started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother."
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The NFL player also took aim at President Joe Biden during his speech.
"While COVID might have played a large role throughout your formative years, it is not unique," he said, addressing the students. "The bad policies and poor leadership have negatively impacted major life issues. Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as growing support for degenerate cultural values and media all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder."
"Our own nation is led by a man who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith but at the same time is delusional enough to make the Sign of the Cross during a pro-abortion rally," Butker said. "He has been so vocal in his support for the murder of innocent babies that I'm sure to many people it appears that you can be both Catholic and pro-choice."
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