One might assume that, as a matter of statistics, there are several gay people playing professional sports not just including women’s golf. There must be gay football players, baseball player, basketball players, etc.
How come we don’t hear about them? This is a more enlightened age we are living in, no? One surely wouldn’t expect the derision and pariah-status one would have met with say 30 years ago. I would think that a gay man or woman in a professional league might feel a sense of pride, and a desire to say, “See! It doesn’t matter!”
Now I understand that in that in certain macho worlds, this is all easier said than done, and that personal policies and feeling are overiding factors. But still it does make me wonder why more gay professional atheletes don’t come out.
Part II (which has nothing to do with a debatable issue, but screw it [no pun intended]):
The reason I thought of this topic: I am a straight male. But we can all put ourselves on that hypothetical homo-hetero scale. On that issue, I’d put myself at about 66.7% straight. Which, conversely, gives my Gay-dar[sup]TM[/sup] about a 33.3% efficiency.
I swear Jeff Garcia is gay. I think that would be just so cool. The Quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers gay. It is just so poetic.
Or maybe there aren’t that many. We really don’t know that much about what makes any of us gay or straight or 33% gay.
I could ask a counter-question: why aren’t more straight men attracted to Broadway productions? I dunno. I just like to think that we all get to do what we like and more power to us for doing so. Of course, that’s just my opinion, I’ve been wrong twice…
Most likely because, though the larger society is more accepting of gays and lesbians, the sports world is not the larger society. I can definitely see any particular player’s marketability dropping like a great big rock if they ever came out. Their future trade value would probably be nil. There would probably be huge protests from the players of any team that the newly out player would be marketed to: “I’m not sharing a shower and locker room with a fag!”
I don’t see any big-name players baring their souls on this subject anytime soon. They have too much to lose…it’s all well and good to piously state that “the principle is more important than the money,” but when the money comes to what well-known, talented NFL, NBA and MLB players make per year, the general response is probably going to be “Principle? What principle? I don’t see any homosexuals around here…”
In my opinion, it is more realistic to say there are homosexual pro athletes that haven’t come out than it is to say there are no homosexual pro atheletes.
Your counter question relies on a stereotype - that homosexuals are more interested in Broadway shows. In fact if one wanted to whip out some sort of statistics on how many Broadway patrons are straight and how many are gay, you’d probably be proved wrong.
I do agree with you that “we all get to [try to] do what we like and more power to us for doing so”, but that doesn’t take away from what I’m wondering about. I.e. - why don’t the homosexual professional atheletes, who are “doing what they like, and more power to them”, let people see the real them?
I’d just like to say that the NFL will probably be the last professional sports organization to admit to having homosexuals on its roster. Partly because football players are notorious for hazing anybody who doesn’t completely fit in with the rest of their group (and even some who do, if they look vulnerable enough) – but mostly because the overall fan reaction will be highly, highly negative. Most football fans are male. For every heterosexual male that’s perfectly comfortable with the notion of having gay guys around, there are 3 or more heterosexual males that’re homophobic. (Heck, my dad’s homophobic, and he doesn’t even like football!) Your average beer-swillin’ Bud-Lite-commercial clone male is going to say, “I ain’t watchin’ no football team with a faggot fairy prancin’ around in it feelin’ other guys’ butts!” and turn off his TV.
There’s probably some kind of unwritten “gentlemen’s agreement” not to let uncloseted homosexuals onto pro football teams, much like there used to be a gentlemen’s agreement among MLB team owners not to let black men play on pro baseball teams.
In Rugby League in Australia Ian Roberts openly discussed his lifestyle while still playing. He was good enough to make the national team frequently and was a noted tough player. I believe he felt that he received nothing but kudos for his openness.
ummm…you guys never noticed the rampant homosexuality of men’s sport in general? the communal showers, group hugs, the intamacy of a good rugby scrum etc etc
but that’s just my casual observation. i’m a cox for my university’s male boat club. On the buses back from races i have heard some of the foulest, most misogynistic songs in existance (sally brown, the dickydoodah song, chicago department store… to name a few)
and quite a few that were, um, original, in their perspective on homosexuality (“Craven A” being a typical example)
This is just a WAG, but perhaps more homosexual athletes haven’t revealed their sexual preference to the world at large for the simple reason that they, like many people, figure that it isn’t anybody else’s damn business.
Professional football (soccer) in the UK is still regarded as heterosexual through-and-through. Chelsea defender Graeme Le Saux has been dogged by ‘queer’ abuse just for admitting to collecting antiques and reading a left-leaning newspaper.
Most famously, potential England striker (and born-again Christian)Justin Fashanu came out in 1990. It killed his career stone dead - he was vilified in the tabloid press and in the black press (quote from The Voice: ‘An affront to the black community’).
His older brother, John, a far more famous player, denounced him publically. His manager, Brian Clough, described his £1m star player as ‘a bloody poof’. Admittedly, he did descend into a spiral of self-destructive behaviour, but there’s no question that the abuse he received contributed directly to it.
Every fan has heard rumours about players at his own or other clubs these days, and while the tabloid press are a little less rabid nowadays it’s still a complete career-killer to admit to being a gay footballer in Britain.
(note: the link above is by Peter Tatchell, not known for being a particularly objective source)
I don’t think he’s ever publicly come out, but on many sports radio call-in shows (The Jim Rome Show, et al), it’s taken for granted that Pittsburgh Steelers QB Kordell Stewart is homosexual.
Now, I realize that sports radio is an absolutely terrible source of solid information. But still, even as an unsubstantiated bald-faced joke, just how DID the Kordell-is-gay stuff get started on sports radio? Did he make a compromising quote in an interview or something? Did Stewart’s image appear in a homosexual periodical? SOMETHING had to kick off the rumors.
When you consider women’s athletes you have to keep in mind how pervasive the stereotype of the “dyke athlete” is. Because athletic women are by virtue of being athletic already breaking the traditional idea of womanhood, there is tremendous pressure for female athletes to be- or at the very least act- as straight as possible.
In many women’s sports, there’s a lot of resentment of lesbians. “They’re giving the rest of us a bad name,” as it were.
In thinking of my own college, I know of a lot of lesbians on athletic teams. Most of them are extremely closeted, for some there’s just an “everybody knows but it’s not spoken of” mentality.
The largest (only, really) block of open lesbian athletes I can think of at my school play rugby, a club sport.
I know there’s a lot of debate about who in the WNBA is gay…I believe one of the coaches is openly gay (the one for NY Liberty, I think) and there’s a lot of discussion re the players.
Personally, I have my heart set on Michele Timms (Phoenix). I think she supposedly has a boyfriend, but every time I look at her I say “Yeah, RIGHT!”
Amelie Mauresmo is openly gay (another tennis player). Greg Louganis (diver). Lots of female golf players. Don’t know who else.
Try this. The article in OutSports.com (yes, there’s a web site for everyone) mentions Stewart’s addressing his teammates in 1999, saying rumors about his personal life have nothing to do with his performance on the field, etc. and he’s the same guy they’ve always known. That isn’t exactly “coming out”, but it isn’t saying “I’m straight”, either.
The SI article, as I recall (funny, not available online) referred to Stewart being stopped by police late one night at a Pittsburgh park noted for gay pickup activity. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Wonder if Dermontti Dawson’s retirement had anything to do with being tired of having Stewart’s hands on his butt 60 times a game? Sorry, couldn’t resist.
I agree with the general tenor of remarks here; there is a strong undercurrent, sometimes surfacing (e.g., Reggie White), of homophobia in professional (team) sports.
There are a few people who are in the closet who play. In one publicized instance, a major league baseball player is the boyfriend of the editor (or publisher?) of Out. Which one? Not revealed. The point of the editor mentioning this in an editorial was to note that the decision whether to come out is a personal one, the choice of each individual. (Rumor hath it that the closeted one is Brady Anderson, Orioles outfielder.) Supposedly there are a number of others who are “open secrets” known to those with a reason to know but with personal reasons for not making it public.
On the other hand, the experience of Corey Whatsisname, the highschool quarterback who came out, was nearly totally positive, to the point that when opposing team players would insult him, his teammates would let them know they were out of line, sometimes forcibly on the next play. ('Sprix? You got any background on him, and what he’s doing now?)
I don’t believe that any current professional team sport player can come out and survive, professionally or economically.
Sure, former players have come out, as have athletes who compete in individual sports. But there is probably a good reason that no current NFL, NBA, MLB, etc, player has come out.
I think it would mean the end of a career. Oh sure, that wouldn’t be the official reason. But his teammates would stop playing for him, no-one would have his back, the coach would bench for some “good” reason, and pretty soon you’d hear about his “nagging injury” or how he’s “bad in the locker room” or whatever, and his career would be over.
If sports is a microcosm of society, then it’s probably a microcosm of the bad parts! For every player who’s a good guy, there are probably several who are racist, or bigoted, or violently anti-homosexual or whatever.
Disclaimer- I don’t read Out and haven’t seen the article in question.
However, it was reported in the mainstream press that the editorial was an attempt to goad the player into coming out because the publisher boyfriend thought it would be good for the cause, not realizing or admitting that it could destroy the ballplayer’s career.
The sensitivity and support offered by Corey’s highschool team mates is admirable and should be applauded. Buuuuttt…highschool is not pro sports. Were Corey to have the talent to achieve a successful college sports career and make it to the pros, I optomistically suspect he wouldn’t be hampered by his sexual preference. He’s already “out”. However, I believe a closeted male pro athlete in a team sport would definitely suffer, as described by other posters, by “coming out”. Pro sports is a rather insular society and pro sports is about money from fans and sponsors, nobody wants to disrupt that flow.