As we talked about on our last podcast, one of the big benefits of people in sports coming out of the closet is the excuse it gives the media to talk about gays in sports and ask athletes questions about the issue. Brendan Burke’s coming out is no different. Since the son of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ GM announcement last week, the Toronto Globe and Mail has been doing a fantastic job, in particular…
David Shoalts talked to members of the Maple Leafs and the Tampa Bay Lightning, with mixed response, some of them seemingly perturbed that they were being asked about gay issues.
David King, an assistant with the Phoenix Coyotes, said hockey players are more ready than ever:
Guys are now intelligent enough, smart enough and worldly enough to realize that there are gays in every profession. It’s the reality of the world we live in - and hockey is a part of life.
They also had Mark Tewksbury in for an online chat that yielded a good discussion. Among other things, Tewksbury was (of course) asked about getting naked in the locker room, and Mark had a great answer about the difference between homoeroticism and homosexuality.
Erin Anderssen and Jeff Blair tracked down some gay former high school athletes about being gay in sports and the decision about coming out.
Winnipeg Free Press columnist Randy Turner is rolling his eyes a bit at all the “positive” response, knowing beneath it all is a sports culture full of homophobia:
Question: If being gay in sports is so damn uneventful, why is it that, in the recorded history of professional hockey — at least as far as we know — there’s never been one openly gay player come out before retiring? Or even after, come to think of it.
TSN talked on air to Brendan and his father, Brian…
on Nov 29th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Love the pregnant pause and the deep breath before the announcer says both the sentence containing the word “gay” and the word “gay” itself.
It gives a sense of the small bit of ground being broken with Burke’s “coming out” in a public way.
Has it made any headway in other USA major media though, like CNN or MSNBC? Hopefully this story will slowly open some minds.
on Nov 30th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Great father and son story. On the whole, it’s very encouraging and the world truly has come a long way since I played high school sports over 30 years ago.
But there still is a long way to go. Randy Turner’s article (link above) hits the nail on the head. The only point he’s missing is that we’re heading in the right direction.
Society and Sports are infinitely more accepting and informed than even 5-10 years ago. And the more Brian and Brendan Burke type stories brought to the general public, the better it will get.
Kudos to the Burkes, ESPN, TSN, Outsports and other media outlets covering this story.
on Nov 30th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
I noticed the term sexual prefrence being used several times in the above links instead of sexual orientation. Hopefully that phraseology will evolve as the press and public get more clued in on sexual idenity and the presence of closeted and out atheletes in sports and everywhere else in life for that matter.
on Nov 30th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Yes I noted the “sexual preference” term a lot too. And it is annoying. But it’s progress that you tend to see “lifestyle preference” less. At least now people seem willing to include the word “sex” or a form of it, meaning they are gaining some control over the knee-jerk “ick” factor normally associated with gay sex but not heterosexual sex.