While i don’t deny that homophobia is rampant in many male-culture activities such as professional sport, i think the reaction to a player outing himself might surprise a few people. In many ways (not all, i realise), sport is one of the few truly meritocratic institutions left; your performance on the field every week is still a key factor in your acceptance or rejection by owners, team-mates, and supporters.
But i do think that the stage of the player’s career would be important. Don’t ask brought up the example of Australian rugby league player Ian Roberts, and as the post said Roberts was a very successful player by the time he came out to the general public. This no doubt contributed to the generally warm reception he got from players and fans. If a football player as successful and talented and established as, for example, Emmitt Smith or Brett Favre, suddenly announced that he was gay, i think the general reaction might be a lot more positive than if the person coming out was a little-known rookie. (Let’s face it, Green Bay wouldn’t be anywhere near the top of their division without Favre, and i reckon very few Packers fans, even homophobic ones, would like to see him go if he was gay).
It is worth noting that in Roberts’ case his homosexuality was widely known in the Sydney gay community, and the press must certainly have been aware of it, but no-one really made anything of it until Roberts decided it was time to declare himself publicly. I knew a few guys who played on the same team as Roberts in the early 1990s, before he came out. These guys were, in general, quite homophobic and were happy making jokes about “fags” etc., but the guys i knew told me that they had no trouble at all with Roberts being on their team, and that his sexuality did not cause team hazing or abuse in the locker room. (Of course, i wasn’t on the team and only have their word for this).
I was surprised that no-one on this thread brought up Dennis Rodman. I’m not a big basketball fan and know very little about him, but i do remember a friend telling me that Rodman has openly admitted to being bisexual. Is this true? And if so, what reaction did this get in the world of basketball?
was the first major-sport athlete to out himself, back in 1975. As this Seattle Post-Intelligencer story notes, he’d been retired for three years when:
I play soccer for a women’s city league team. From my observations I play on the only non-lesbian team. Now we don’t divide the league up according to who is and who isn’t a lesbian but it just so happens that only one girl on my team is gay. I am not a lesbian, but I have no problem playing against another team who are mostly lesbian. My team and I have talked about the difference in sexuality among the teams and we’ve come the the conclusion that we stick together mainly because we are the minority, we are the only non-lesbian team (except for one woman on our team) I just wanted to give some of my own feedback on your post and I thank you for the information - SoccerDuck
Don’t most sports reek of homosexuality anyway? A gay friend watching wresters practicing one time commented “wrestling is so homo-erotic.” Well said. After all, in sports men run around in tight clothes and touch each other a lot. There’s got to be some level of homosexuality in order for someone to have an initial desire to do that. If you watch basketball or football, the cheerleaders get astonishingly small glimpses of screen time (not worth watching, IMHO). To me, the only sports worth watching are gymnastics, cheerleading competitions, and figure skating --for obvious reasons. Why men sit in front of the TV religiously, glued to the images of other men is beyond my understanding. Leaves me in the heterosexual minority.
FTR, I was a cheerleader/stuntman in college. Now, friends, THAT was a sport! (Fun, good exercise, and ahem exciting).
Here’s an old thread that has to do with this subject.
by booklover
There was an article in Sports Illustrated about coach’s that had more personal relationships with their players. Part of the article talked about Nancy Liebermann and her alleged relationship with one of the team’s players. It caused problems on the team when the player (that apparently wasn’t all that talented) was getting a bit more playing time than her teammates thought she deserved. The other players started suspecting something, Liebermann ended up getting fired, and I believe the player was also cut from the team. The article said that Lieberman is seperated from her husband, and I don’t remember if the coach and player are currently living together.
Why men sit in front of the TV religiously, glued to the images of other men is beyond my understanding. Leaves me in the heterosexual minority.**
If you’ve ever wondered where all those Kinsey 1s, 2s and 3s are… there’s your answer. They can sit in front of the tube and dream of all those husky men, running around in tight costumes with padding, hitting each other on the butt and call it “a night with the boys”
You do realize that not everything in the universe has to do with sex, don’t you? I watch sports, because I like to marvel at the athleticism, intensity, skill, etc, of the participants, not to stare at men in skimpy clothing. I go to public washrooms for that. Kidding.
But why watch cheerleading, figure skating and gymnastics if you’re only in it for the poontang shots. Go buy a magazine. They actually show them naked in magazines.
What about that very famous basketball player (I’n not gonna out the guy) who contracted AIDS? Why are so many fans ready to accept that he got it from a woman?
Don’t most sports reek of homosexuality anyway? A gay friend watching wresters practicing one time commented “wrestling is so homo-erotic.” Well said. After all, in sports men run around in tight clothes and touch each other a lot. There’s got to be some level of homosexuality in order for someone to have an initial desire to do that. If you watch basketball or football, the cheerleaders get astonishingly small glimpses of screen time (not worth watching, IMHO). To me, the only sports worth watching are gymnastics, cheerleading competitions, and figure skating --for obvious reasons. Why men sit in front of the TV religiously, glued to the images of other men is beyond my understanding. Leaves me in the heterosexual minority.
FTR, I was a cheerleader/stuntman in college. Now, friends, THAT was a sport! (Fun, good exercise, and ahem exciting).
What about that very famous basketball player (I’n not gonna out the guy) who contracted AIDS? Why are so many fans ready to accept that he got it from a woman?**
sigh Please tell me this was a joke post? Please, please, PLEASE!?!?!
mangeorge, the reason so many people believe this is because it’s VERY possible to be infected with HIV thru heterosexual (vaginal) intercourse. No, it’s not as likely as with anal intercourse, but it can happen, especially if one doesn’t use a condom. Apparently this famous star didn’t believe it could happen to him. Guess what, it did. In fact, in certain parts of the world, heterosexual (vaginal) intercourse is the main vector for spreading HIV. Please read up on the literature on how HIV is spread before you, too, become infected because (as you seem to think) it only happens to gay males.
I watch cheerleading, figure skating, and gymnastics to marvel at the athleticism, intensity, and skill of the participants AND enjoy the view at the same time. I know first hand that cheerleading is not made for display of curves and asses, it requires a lot of skill and ability (the curves and asses are just a bonus). I don’t need to sit through a boring game (which is mostly fat old guys talking while people stand around on the field) and then get a magazine to satisfy the next need. With the way that people obsess over football in particular, it seems that many think about either football or sex most of the time. I figure it’s only a matter of time before they try a combination. Now, combining cheerleading and sex?..Excellent.
No, Freyr, it wasn’t intended as a joke. But I guess my post wasn’t well written. I’m very well read on the subject of AIDS, and know how it is spread. As a matter of fact, woman-to-man infection through vaginal sex is relatively uncommon. Most uncommon is woman-to woman. In the USA, anyway.
Anyway, the thrust of my post was supposed to be the unquestioning acceptance of many fans that a sports hero was infected by a woman, and not by recieving (far more likely, statiscally) anal sex from a man.
Sorry for the confusion. I admire the guy, myself. Kinda.
Peace,
mangeorge
Dale, your major complaint seems to be that you don’t like sports. And appearantly there just aren’t enough references to sex in the world for you.
I don’t understand in the least how you find a man watching an athletic event featuring men to be homoerotic. Not that it can’t be, but that would entirely depend on the veiwer - not the sporting event.
Your original assertation was that “in sports men run around in tight clothes and touch each other a lot. There’s got to be some level of homosexuality in order for someone to have an initial desire to do that.”
I respectfully say, bullshit to that, dear boy. You may categorize Warren Sapp knocking Kurt Warner into next week as “touching” but I don’t find anything particularly erotic about it. As for the clothes, allow me to quote Emilio Estevez – “It’s the required uniform.”
So your arguement that sports reek of homosexuality is darn near stupid, but whatever turns your crank, I guess.
In fact if you were correct about that, then more pro athletes would come out of the closet because they’d be coming out in an environment “reeking of homosexuality”. What could be safer? [Remember the OP?]
Snooooopy, a good friend of mine is gay. He’s also a father of four, and a grandfather. He didn’t give up the pretences until he was in his 50’s.
Being gay does not make a man sterile.
Peace,
mangeorge
