dagblog - Comments for "Will an active professional American male athlete ever come out of the closet?"

I agree with you Wulfy, and

tmccarthy0 — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:44:29 +0000

I agree with you Wulfy, and here is why. I had a close friend who was diagnosed with HIV in 1987. It was a particularly difficult time in her life, she feared being ostracized not just by the world, but by her Southern Baptist parents. A few years later, Magic Johnson announced he too was HIV positive, which gave her courage to tell he parents three years before she died. They were angry, but prior to her death they did forgive her and she forgave them. So I understand what you are saying. I miss Sue every day, but am glad she didn't die with that weight of her shoulders, a weight of disappointment and fear.

Here's what I was riffing

William K. Wolfrum — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:32:00 +0000

In reply to Dear Wulfrum. This is what I

Here's what I was riffing on:

But I just can't get over the conceit that anyone should have to declare to the world such personal issues as sexual preference. Yes, they may be declining to do so out of cowardice rather than a sense of self, but I don't think it is anyone else's call.

All I know is that I've had close friends that spent years closeted. I know the pain they endured. And I truly believe seeing prominent individuals come out would have helped them.

Dear Wulfrum. This is what I

CVille Dem — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:28:00 +0000

In reply to Will an active professional American male athlete ever come out of the closet?

Dear Wulfrum. This is what I wrote:

Sorry, Wolfie, I can't jump on this bandwagon. I think that "telling the world" about your sexual preference is just as absurd as announcing your religion, or your latest Pap Smear results. It's personal.

Where in that am I suggesting that this blog is "demanding" anything? I agree that the culture we live in, with value judgements on everything right down to those who would keep girls from being vaccinated to prevent cervical cancer. Although I don't see any shame or "wrongness" about having sex without marriage, I don't think that is anyone's business in that regard either.

Where is the "straw man?". Kindly tell me or else I might do it again, not realizing what I am even saying.

I'll tell you this: no sports

Doctor Cleveland — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 04:00:13 +0000

In reply to Will an active professional American male athlete ever come out of the closet?

I'll tell you this: no sports agent is going to tell any of those gay athletes to come out. Because doing so would presumably lose the out-of-the-closet athlete lots of endorsement money, and the endorsements are often more than the big-time-sports salaries. Any agent will urge the client not to risk it.

It's the difference between Jackie Robinson and whichever major male sports star first comes out: Robinson couldn't pass. He didn't have the option of hiding his identity. So he couldn't lose his stardom or his money by making a stand. The big-six sports star who comes out will be risking things.

I've always assumed that the big moment will come from an established star. But I'm thinking more that it will have to be red-hot prospect who's out before ever getting to the pros: say, a nationally-ranked high school prospect who comes out at 16 or 17, signs with a college program that's willing to accept him as gay and then gets drafted by a pro franchise that knows what it's getting. It will be a fight at every step, and it will take a lot of guts. But slipping up the back stairs and then risking your place will take more guts than almost anybody has.

It may show courage to take

acanuck — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 01:34:00 +0000

In reply to Will an active professional American male athlete ever come out of the closet?

It may show courage to take that lonely walk to the microphone, and I'm sure the athlete would feel better about himself after he did. But I'm with CVille: it's totally unfair that anyone should ever have to. Heterosexuals don't, unless there are multimillion-dollar endorsement deals riding on a squeaky-clean image, and the number of your extramarital affairs has climbed into double digits.

Except for golf, all the associations you mention involve team sports. I'm pretty sure that, in the locker room, most players know who plays for which team. And most, I imagine, either don't care, or are supportive. If an athlete decides to out himself for the sake of others, here's what I'd like to see:

Half a dozen or so star teammates (or buddies from other teams) call a press conference "to reveal our sexuality." You know every TV network is going to carry it live. CNN will send Anderson Cooper.

The first player, ideally the biggest star, begins. "Well, the wife and I like to start off with a handjob ... ." The next participant starts, "I jerk off a lot." And so it goes, down the line. When they get to our hero, he says, "I'm the gay guy; I have sex with boys rather than with girls." By then, the revelation doesn't have the shock value everyone was salivating for, does it?

First of all, it would be smashing TV, a ratings bonanza. The networks wouldn't dare cut to commercial. And it would stick it in the face of both the media and the prurient audience: How much of this do you really think you have a right to know? And what kind of headlines appear the next day? Do you write about the gay guy coming out, or about the home-run king announcing, "Then my wife usually straps on a dildo ... ."

There is one flaw in my scenario: it would require a bunch of highly paid straight athletes to display the same kind of courage that's being demanded of their gay teammate. So it probably won't happen. But I'd watch that movie.

(In passing, I really do apologize to anyone offended by the coarse language in this comment. I know I'm pushing the Terms of Use envelope, and I'll understand if it gets deleted. I hope it isn't.)

Sorry, Wolfie, I can't jump

CVille Dem — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:29:46 +0000

In reply to Will an active professional American male athlete ever come out of the closet?