ESPN columnist LZ Granderson gave an interview to Michigan-based online mag MLive.com and talked about being a gay sports journalist, gay athletes, Prop 8 and dissing Michael Jordan. He also spends several paragraphs talking about the lack of out gay athletes in the pros.
The truth is, I’m not so sure that someone hasn’t already come out to his teammates and they just keep it in the family. Some gay people believe that every person of note who is gay should hold a press conference to announce their orientation. I don’t. I just believe in living an authentic life. I never wrote an “I’m gay” column in the newspaper. I just brought my boyfriend to the Super Bowl and let folks who gave a damn draw their own conclusions. John Amaechi stated in his book, “Man in the Middle”, he came out to some teammates long before he came out more publicly and officially became an activist. That situation is hardly unique.
We’ve long talked about the definition of “out athlete” on this site. Many people want an athlete to hold a press conference, but I think, like Granderson, that a big announcement is so unlikely. Why would an athlete do that instead of just taking a boyfriend to team events or speaking engagements? It’s so important to have the backing of the team, and that alone would probably take years to develop. I like LZ’s thinking here: It is happening, we’re just not seeing it. And yeah, LZ thinks we’re a long way from seeing someone hold one of those press conferences.
on Jan 6th, 2009 at 6:13 PM
This rings true. I always use the term “publicly out” when addressing it, since we have heard of jocks who are out to family, friends, even a teammate or two, but not to the world. ESPN called last year wrestling for a term to use for a story and they liked “publicly out.”
on Jan 6th, 2009 at 11:29 PM
I’ve always thought this could be possible as well. A very public coming out would be quite the distraction in the locker room thanks to the crush of media that would come to get quotes on a highly controversial issue in our society that has virtually nothing to do with the sport itself that they are playing.
on Jan 7th, 2009 at 2:20 PM
I agree with the sentiment, but I seriously doubt in this age of sensational journalism that this kind of story would stay hidden for long. Just think back to various “I’m not gay” press conferences in the last few years. The media spotlight would be too hot to ignore, me thinks. God, I’m cynical.
on Jan 10th, 2009 at 12:06 AM
Oh my un-Christian or Mormon Gawd! Are we really applauding the obscurity of an ages’ old model of familial “tolerance” when we’re discussing role models for internally shamed & externally humiliated “outed” teen athletes? If I were a Black American who survived being raised in an inner-city gun embattled & drug infested neighborhood, after having achieved the seemingly impossible life’s goal of graduating from Medical School or (Heaven forefend!) Law School, would it be sufficient to simply allow others to draw their own private conclusions about whom I fought to become? Or rather, would it seem to be a matter of life or death to mentor those remaining young Black men & women who are struggling to overcome the stacked odds against them to get beyond this culture’s prejudices that expect so little of them? Millionaire gay athletes are smugly self-satisfied without a social ounce of conscience if they assume that their NFL or NBA “family” is as proud of them as they would be of the NFL-bound Tim Tebow, who invokes John, 3:16 to remind the “In-With-Jesus” crowd that most of us poor slobs will eternally perish without Jesus as our savior! Wake the duck up! “Tolerance” within a patriarchal substitute for the average American “family”, whether it’s the NFL, NBA, or NCAA for that matter, is just plain feces when our athletic gay youth need fecund fields upon which to play their sports with an equal chance of attaining their best, no matter which little Texan small town or “Liberal” major city these gifted young folks find themselves in an America governed by Constitutional Guarantees of Equal Protection under the law, and Equal Opportunity to succeed wherever they are qualified! Give up the “stealth” and “silent” treatment. It killed people en masse when quiet gay men were considered the expendable fringe group in the early days of the HIV Epidemic, and it will continue to kill anonymous kids nationwide if we don’t grow some spine to match our Millionaire incomes!