Comments on: Granderson: Pro athletes are quietly out

By: RomanFingers

RomanFingers — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 05:06:18 +0000

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!

By: Cesar

Cesar — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:20:38 +0000

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.

By: blueraider

blueraider — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:29:18 +0000

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.

By: Jim Buzinski

Jim Buzinski — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:13:58 +0000

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.”