Why gay athletes don't announce it

[G-Lexington]

Corporal, you threw that jeep in reverse so quick you may have damaged the transmission. To say nothing of the ruts left in the road. That's fine. Most of us were there once, too.

Lex

 

[NVRMOR]

Really?

then you're not paying attention. They parade their wives and girlfriends around for the cameras, they release pictures of their kids and weddings to People magazine... they openly party at straight clubs with Jennifer Lopez.

Tell me... You think Tiger Woods might be straight?

Nope.
But I don't remember him announcing he was straight. He just did what he did.
I'm not saying anyone should hide their life or desires. Just simply live them, don't announce something.

 

[Red Storm]

As a side note, in the past 2008 Olympics, outof 11,028 athletes from 204 countries, 11 were gay and out.

 

[G-Lexington]

>>>I'm not saying anyone should hide their life or desires. Just simply live them, don't announce something.

"Coming out" doesn't mean calling a press conference. Otherwise, I'm still in the closet. "Coming out" just means not living the lie anymore. And I'm sorry - if you're taking a (female) supermodel to the big shindig because "it's nobody's business that I'm gay", then you're living the lie.

Lex

 

[Paws]

But if the sports team you play for is homophobic...then what? You can't just quit and join another team - you're under contract.

Fuck the contract, any professional athlete can look for a "normal" job like all the millions of other gays. I don't feel pity for any gay athlete that has to live a double life. Unlike a disabled gay man has to take a job he can deal with, athletes had the free choice to take sports for a living and become a public person.

 

[DigitalFudge]

I just thought athletes don't come out of the closet because their audience are mostly homophobes...


Didn't know in reality the reason was so detailed and involved... I almost learned something today

 

[CorporalAris]

>>>I'm not saying anyone should hide their life or desires. Just simply live them, don't announce something.

"Coming out" doesn't mean calling a press conference. Otherwise, I'm still in the closet. "Coming out" just means not living the lie anymore. And I'm sorry - if you're taking a (female) supermodel to the big shindig because "it's nobody's business that I'm gay", then you're living the lie.

Lex

Sorry, but everytime I have heard about someone coming out, it was always a huge public ordeal, with people arguing whether it was right, public attention, etc. So that's what I meant.

 

[slickery]

I would think that being an Olympic athlete isn't just all about the sport. They are usually positive role models and as such have the ability to change minds and opinions.

Regardless if an athlete has publicly come out, or if they've just kept their personal lives out of the media, they should use this chance of "fame" to say "look, i'm here, and queer, and I'm just as good as any other athlete. Olympians in general don't really have a long career, and they don't make that much money so it's not like they have much to lose. Especially since many of the sports are individual events.

And in the case of Metthew Mitchell, it's not like he's not making a living, he got a spot of some "reality" athletic based TV show, and while he doesn't win he's still on it every week hamming it up with other blokes, and no one appears to be uncomfortable. Which is especially good because there are some other footy guys on the show that people will see interacting with him and probably think to themselves "if Billy Slater can be friends with a fag, they must not be that bad."

 

[initiallyyours]

Thanks for the link and all the info, guys. It's all been really helpful; I'm helping out at a press conference about Sexuality on Thursday (might be canceled? Not sure what's going on) and I'm going to be interviewing some people about the this problem. Wish me luck!

 

[blackbeltninja]

I don't think the sexuality should be an issue in sports, either positive or negative, and I don't think people should have to come out if they choose not to.

What next, should we expect people to wear t-shirts stating their exact age, weight, religious and political affiliations, IQs and salaries? Is nothing allowed to be personal and private anymore?

-d-

 

[Joshua_me]

Yes, well...

Part of it is that the "straight sports media" can seem so damned clueless at times...

I just watched this sports show on HBO, which featured Johnny Weir and other Olympic athletes from figure skating.

After they went on for 10 min about how Johnny LUVS designing his own costumes and shopping at Barney's in NYC because as he put it, "Shopping is the ultimate stress reliever, even better than sex"

They then showed Johnny NAKED IN A BATHTUB with his male "best friend" , both of them covered with bubbles and talking about current events and fashion...

Then with a straight (sorry) face the two newscasters looked into the camera and pontificated if Weir might be gay or not.

"It's his business, but perhaps one day he'll let the world know one way or the other", one of them said.

Sweet Jesus on a biscuit ! Are there still straight men that are THAT clueless ???

I wouldn't come out, either...

*sheesh*

 

[G-Lexington]

>>>Fuck the contract, any professional athlete can look for a "normal" job like all the millions of other gays.

That's totally correct, and I agree. Then again, most professional athletes don't go into professional sports on a whim. Most have trained nearly their entire lives for it. They've trained for hours a day, every day - most starting at a time before they had any inkling of their sexuality. Given than, I can understand their reluctance to trade their lifelong goal for an everyday job that pays a fraction of the money and has zero of the recognition. I'm not saying they can't do it, or even shouldn't do it. But I can understand them being extremely reluctant to do it.

Lex

 

[fetaby]

Nope.
But I don't remember him announcing he was straight. He just did what he did.
I'm not saying anyone should hide their life or desires. Just simply live them, don't announce something.

And that's the thing, as long as we are socially outcast. Simply existing and going about our business, is "throwing our sexuality in peoples faces."

The difference between being a minority and a majority? Minorities have to fight or they get trampled.

 

[hotdog1846]

why should we be the only ones who say "it's none of anyone's business?"

I don't know why, but this totally touched a nerve with me tonight.

Why indeed are we the only ones who say that? When I take my man (if he existed, that is) to a party because I want to share that party with the most important person in the world to me, sure ... that's totally making it other peoples' business.

Because they have to meet, greet, and get to know someone who matters to me.

And yeah, when the party's over, I'm gonna shag his brains out.

Simple solution for people who don't like the thought of gay sex: Don't think about gay sex!

Maybe I'll go tilt at some other windmill. It's been a long day...

 

[Krakenbwool]

I find that "hypermasculine" environments such as in sports and the military are prone to the most homoeroticism. Because of that, I think a lot of guys in those fields are VERY paranoid. In their very touchy horseplay, they don't want to know if someone is genuinely getting turned on.

You can't really compare diving to sports like football and basketball, because as far as my limited knowledge of diving goes, it's a relatively solitary sport, while football players have to spend TONS of time around each other in locker rooms, showers, etc., not to mention that their time on the field is heavily contact. It's great that Mitcham came out, but we have a LONG way to go before an active football player comes out.

 

[Red Storm]

I find that "hypermasculine" environments such as in sports and the military are prone to the most homoeroticism. Because of that, I think a lot of guys in those fields are VERY paranoid. In their very touchy horseplay, they don't want to know if someone is genuinely getting turned on.

You can't really compare diving to sports like football and basketball, because as far as my limited knowledge of diving goes, it's a relatively solitary sport, while football players have to spend TONS of time around each other in locker rooms, showers, etc., not to mention that their time on the field is heavily contact. It's great that Mitcham came out, but we have a LONG way to go before an active football player comes out.

An active MLB, NBA, NFL,NHL player out, is something I want to see someday. but don't think is going to happen soon.

Ex MLB/NFL players have come out but after they were done with the sport.

 

[blackbeltninja]

^Addtionally, they have to put up with shit from fans.

Read about the racial slurs which get slung around by opposition fans in European football all the time, the mass booing, throwing of missiles onto the pitch - I suspect an openly gay player would be targeted even more.

It's just not pleasant, and since the sexuality has nothing to do with the game, I suppose the gay players just don't bring it to anyone's attention. Can't say I blame them.

-d-