Paul Bockwoldt
There is a terrific photo and audio essay on the New York Times.com profiling Paul Bockwoldt, a 28-year-old financial analyst who is straight but plays for the gay-oriented Gotham Knights Rugby club. Bockwoldt’s brother John is gay and also plays on the team. Paul is very articulate in discussing how being on John’s team brought the two brothers together, and of his initial trepidation about playing for the Knights.
… Especially in a sport like rugby where you’re reaching between a guy’s leg or one guy might have his head between you and another guy’s head. … those concerns faded very very fast.”
Paul also discusses the brothers’ tradition of belting out songs from “Les Miserables” while traveling on away games. “Castle on a Cloud is our go-to song,” he says. The 2:27 essay is excellently done with great photos and well worth your while.
on May 15th, 2009 at 8:45 PM
Excellent!
on May 17th, 2009 at 3:30 AM
Awesome!
on May 17th, 2009 at 9:47 AM
Jim-a wonderful article and I do think straight people who play on gay teams are our allies and are helping to change minds about homophobia in sport and the world….helen
on May 18th, 2009 at 12:30 AM
Great story. The 2 bros have excellent legs also.
on May 18th, 2009 at 7:05 AM
Cool story.
on May 18th, 2009 at 7:55 AM
Awesome! Glad to have seen this short, but well deserved story.
on May 18th, 2009 at 6:43 PM
I guess he just needed a league to dominate b/c he couldn’t compete in the straight league.
I wonder if I could join a women’s league or a women’s team b/c I have a sister….or b/c I have a mother. I wonder if they would buy the reason that “I wanted to be closer to them…”
on May 19th, 2009 at 9:13 AM
Stories like this anger me to no end. Having a haterosexual on a gay team is NOT an accomplishment. Haterosexuals can go anywhere. ANYWHERE ANYTIME! When the f*ck is there going to be a acknowledged gay football player or gay soccer player? Discrimination. Discrimination. Discrimination. That is exactly what is going on in every professional sport on the PLANET to make sure gay people don’t participate. And all that discrimination is coming from haterosexuals.
on May 19th, 2009 at 3:00 PM
“Hatero”sexuals is clever, but you’re needlessly slamming every straight person.
And logic dictates that there are gay people in professional sports, but they’re just not acknowledging it publicly. So, technically, they’re discriminating against themselves. By not being officially out, they’re not giving teams/leagues a chance to discriminate (or not) against them.