I’ve long said that gay athletes and sports fans have two coming out processes. First they have to come out as gay to their friends and family, and then they have to come out as sports fans and athletes to their gay friends. The latest evidence is a column by Brent Ledger (right) who writes he wishes athletes like Brendan Burke would just stay in the closet because it upsets his vision of what it is to be gay.
Personally, I’m perfectly happy with the status quo, which is to say arts equals gayness. I sometimes say that I became gay in order to avoid sports, and I’m only half kidding. I trained with a competitive swim team as a teenager and I’ve been in and out of gyms for most of my adult life but I certainly don’t think of myself as athletic. The very idea makes me giggle.
“Arts equal gayness?” Tee hee hee.
One of his arguments is that it’s artists, not athletes, at the forefront of the gay-rights movement and who have created a whole mythology of what it means to be gay. So who needs athletes when artists have been doing the job for so long?
What the fool is obviously too sheltered to understand is that there are millions and millions of gay men and women who don’t identify with the artist culture, can’t sing along with Gypsy, and identify more with Dave Kopay than Oscar Wilde. Of course, he’d probably claim it’s an act or it’s internal homophobia: You know, the same old song and dance we hear from theater queens who find out we’re athletes. But that really comes from a deeply insecure place in their minds where they need to believe that they didn’t have a choice to be a theater queen, because all gays are the same. Newsflash: We’re not, and people like us are increasingly outnumbering people like you.
You’d have to think the column was a spoof if it wasn’t so clear that it was written with all honesty.
The Toronto Star publishes this guy’s trash every other week. You can reach him at bledger@ca.inter.net.
on Dec 15th, 2009 at 1:29 PM
Amen, sister! Toronto Star readers may think Brent Ledger speaks for the gay community, but he speaks only for himself.
on Dec 15th, 2009 at 2:54 PM
on Dec 15th, 2009 at 3:16 PM
This guy may think he’s being clever or funny but he’s actually coming off as a total douchebag. Yeah, let’s just havev everyone live up to (or down to) the sterotypes. Let’s not have anyone break the mold. What an idiot.
on Dec 15th, 2009 at 3:42 PM
“I sometimes say I became gay only to avoid sports, and I’m only half kidding”
This line jumped out at me for the simple reason that being gay isn’t a “choice” – we’re born gay. I know he meant that as a joke but people could read that the wrong way and get the wrong impressions.
I’m gay and while I like some broadway musicals (Phantom of the Opera) and love “Glee” – I identify way more with sports. I’m a HUGE Sports Fan (hell I’m a Sports Reporter!) and it’s offensive to lump an entire group of people with one stereotype.
on Dec 15th, 2009 at 3:56 PM
This guy is a total tool. Back in October, he was complaining in a column about the conformity of the gay community (http://www.thestar.com/living/article/717032–for-true-conformity-look-to-the-gay-community) and now he is complaining about anyone that chooses a different path for their life.
I think his general theme can be summed up as “unless you are doing what I approve of, you’re wrong.”
on Dec 15th, 2009 at 4:15 PM
this guy is a disgrace. we may be gay but we’re still men and some of us enjoy more masculine activity than others, what’s the big deal? I have no problem with those who are swishy-artsy (in fact most are bottoms so I love em) but he certainly seems to have a problem with us for not being so.
and like Enigma I love musicals and Glee, too, why can’t we love it all?
on Dec 15th, 2009 at 6:44 PM
I just read Ledger’s entire article. It’s not nearly as negative and attacking as portrayed above. In fact, it is somewhat sarcastic and even a little playful.
A line in the article regarding Brendan Burke’s coming out is immediately preceding the quoted excerpt above and it says, ” . . . Well, good on you, I thought. But, also, did you have to?”
To me that line reads as trying to be a little funny and not at all attacking. The rest of the article had a similar theme.
on Dec 15th, 2009 at 9:47 PM
Druggybear, I am six foot four, a football fan, played basketball, and hairy. And a big ole aggressive rock your world bottom. Don’t assume.
And yeah, I like music and art too. But my swishes are deadly.
on Dec 15th, 2009 at 10:38 PM
Enigma, whew! Thanks for saying that … I don’t know anyone else who like both NFL football AND Glee. Good to know I’m not the only one!
on Dec 16th, 2009 at 12:32 AM
Chalk me up too as a NFL, college basketball (hell all sports) loving, glee fan and theatre fan bottom =)
I’m hoping a pro athlete will come out at some point while he is playing.
on Dec 16th, 2009 at 7:25 PM
NFL and GLEE FAN HERE!!!! What a ass!
on Dec 16th, 2009 at 11:19 PM
Mike, I think you’re right. The problem is, he’s not very good at subtle satire. So it comes across as earnest and like he meant it.
on Dec 17th, 2009 at 7:17 AM
Luckily, some of us can shoot a soccer goal AND sing along with Gypsy!!! Gotta love multitasking!
on Dec 17th, 2009 at 12:01 PM
I know Brent – not all that well but he was fun in bed if I recall correctly – lol. He’s actually a nice guy – but in this case he’s way off base.
Unfortunately before writing for the Toronto Star I think he spent way too much time surrounded by the Xtra! Pink Triangle Press crowd that publish the gay newspaper here in Toronto where Brent was employed for years. It was like pulling teeth to get them to write a story about gay sports. When I was on the board of Team Toronto trying to organize athletes for Gay Games we couldn’t get mention of our events in Xtra or get anybody to cover the events – even when there would be over 200 people out with Canadian Olympic athletes in attendance as was the case just before Montreal and Chicago in 2006.
We’d have well over 1000 gay athletes taking part in our gay sports leagues every single week and we rarely had mention of anything related to that in the bi-weekly xtra!, but some art exhibit or play that would have 25 people show up would get previewed in one edition and reviewed the next.
In Toronto at least it was almost as if the gay media did not want to admit that the gay jock existed as it didn’t fit their stereotype of being gay. No wonder why gay athletes haven’t come out when even a lot of the gay media seems intent on denying their existence.
on Dec 17th, 2009 at 5:56 PM
This guy is not a good writer. I get what he was trying to say, but he lacks the writing skills to make himself clear. I certainly do not equate gays with good taste, the arts, or anything in particular. Everyone is different, and that is good. As for artistic types leading the gay rights movement, that has more to do with some fields of endeavor being more homophobic than others. Gays coming out in the sports world is evidence of the march of equal rights far more than a Broadway performer or playwright coming out. A gay athlete coming out does more to topple walls of bigotry than anything the artsy community can do at this time, so I am happy when anyone associated with sports comes out. By the way, total football fan, total Glee fan!
on Dec 17th, 2009 at 6:01 PM
What comprises the “gay community”?
on Dec 19th, 2009 at 2:46 AM
The article IS a spoof. Get a clue.