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

    By William K. Wolfrum on Mon, 02/28/2011 - 9:22am | Sports

    Q: What do the NBA, Major League Baseball, PGA Tour, NFL, Major League Soccer and NHL have in common?

    A: Spacious closets.

    Yes, friends, the six biggest male professional sports leagues in America share one major thing – not a single one its athletes is openly gay. Not one.

    Which makes English cricketer Steven Davies admission that he is a gay male all the more brave. From Towleroad:

    In a frank and moving interview with Monday’s Daily Telegraph, Davies, who started his professional cricketing career with Worcestershire when he was 18, said he could no longer bear to lie about his sexuality. Davies, who told his family he was gay five years ago and has enjoyed their complete support, said it was a huge relief to finally come clean and be honest with the wider public.

    And he said he hoped his decision would help other young gay people to have the confidence to follow in his footsteps. He explained: “This is the right time for me…I feel it is right to be out in the open about my sexuality. .”

    There are Gay males in the major American sports leagues. Any arguments that athletes can’t be gay are not just illogical, but outright stupid.

    There are approximately 4,000 men actively participating in the six major U.S. sports leagues. There are Gay males amongst those 4,000. To think otherwise is both old-fashioned and out-of-touch thinking. Yet not a single one of them has come out of the closet.

    Take it a step further – no active athlete in the history of these sports has EVER admitted to being a gay male.

    This is by no means to insinuate that it is the fault of Gay Male Athletes in these sports that none have ever come out of the closet. It is a cultural issue, and a decision that will most definitely cause a loss of income and a plethora of hateful comments and actions. Even in 2011, it is strictly taboo for a professional male athlete – especially in a team sport – to come out as Gay.

    And a post such of this would be woefully misinforming if it didn’t mention the athletes that have come out as LGBT while either active or following their careers. They are to be respected and applauded.

    One day, an active male athlete in one of these sports will come out of the closet about his sexuality. It will be a brave and selfless decision. It is time for this taboo to end. And to paraphrase Mr. Davies, it will be a good thing.

    –WKW

    Crossposted at William K. Wolfrum Chronicles

    Topics: 
    Sports

    Comments

    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.  


    by CVille Dem on Mon, 02/28/2011 - 6:29pm

    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.)


    by acanuck on Mon, 02/28/2011 - 8:34pm

    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.


    by Doctor Cleveland on Mon, 02/28/2011 - 11:00pm

    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.


    by CVille Dem on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 1:28pm

    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.


    by William K. Wolfrum on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 1:32pm

    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.

    by tmccarthy0 on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 1:44pm