Outsports gets many requests from students and researchers delving into the subject of gays in sports. Out site has been of great value in hooking these researchers up with gay athletes, in and out of the closet. A student just posted a request on our Discussion Board after discovering Outsports through our book at his [...]
Posts under ‘Coming out’
BJK asks Nadal and Federer to support gays
Out tennis legend Billie Jean King talked about her outing and today’s gays in tennis with Tennis.com. In addition to saying she knows a couple closeted gay men in tennis, King places the responsibility for opening the door to openly gay tennis players squarely on the shoulders of the best male players in the world, [...]
Joe Torre hopes players will come out
While Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre is getting ripped to shreds by the New York media for some things he said in his new book, he gave gay people something to cheer about in an interview he did on Larry King Live last week:
Ventura, Calif., Viewer: Billy Bean, after he retired, he announced he [...]
Closeted high school coach seeks advice
On our Discussion Board, a man who says he is a closeted high school basketball coach, is seeking advice in dealing with his situation.
I am a closeted high school basketball coach, but also a leader in the sports community. I serve as the president of the area coaches association and am also a state and [...]
Granderson: Pro athletes are quietly out
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 [...]
Mitcham puzzled by lack of endorsements
Four months after winning a gold medal in platform diving, Australian Matthew Mitcham still has not secured any sponsorships, a development that perplexes him. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Mitcham says he does not regret coming out before the Games, but does wonder if that has made any companies cautious.
Yeah, I haven’t [...]
Bragman’s new book comes out
Longtime Outsports friend and PR maven Howard Bragman is releasing a new book that is fun, conversational, enlightening and sure to be a must-read for anyone looking for a little fame and some great insights into PR. “Where’s My Fifteen Minutes?” is the work of a man who has handled dire PR nightmares with grace [...]
Logo’s got game with new show
Growing up in a Mormon house with five athletic brothers and a football coach father taught Rory Ray (photo) lessons about himself, sports and family. It also unwittingly helped prepare him for his latest gig as a member of an ensemble cast on the newest entrant into reality television.
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Another collegiate swimmer is out
Don’t know how we missed this one. Actually, I do – we were on vacation. But another collegiate swimmer has come out of the closet publicly, this time UMBC junior Fred Deal. UMBC, for those who don’t know, is University of Maryland Baltimore County (believe it or not, their basketball team was in the NCAA [...]
Olympic figure skater comes out
Gay.com has an interview with former Olympic figure skater Ryan O’Meara, who apparently came out in an Arizona magazine recently (I couldn’t find anything about it on Google). Anyhow, O’Meara was on the 2006 U.S. Olympic team for ice dancing; he and his partner, Jamie Silverstein (a woman, as the Olympics don’t allow same-sex partners), [...]
Former tennis pro is out
Though Out magazine’s self-labeled “sports issue” doesn’t live up to its billing (neither the cover photo nor the editor’s letter pertains to sports, there are only two sports-related articles, and one photo shoot had an oddly placed baseball bat), there is a feature on Francisco Rodriguez, an openly gay former pro tennis player who was [...]
World’s fastest man: Tyson Homosexual
I was doing a Google News search of “Olympic + homosexual” to see if there was any news regarding gays and the upcoming Games. It was then I learned that sprinter Tyson Gay had actually changed his name, at least on one website:
OneNewsNow, where these links point to, is an online new site run by [...]
Out Missouri diver an All-American
From Gay.com comes a nice story and gallery of Greg DeStephen, an All-American diver at the University of Missouri. His coming out story mirrored many we have written about, and despite support in high school, the initial reactions of his Mizzou teammates were less than positive.
“It was uncomfortable,” Greg says. “A lot of the guys [...]
Boxer Emile Griffith comes out as gay
Former welterweight boxing champion Emile Griffith, who in 1962 killed a man in the ring who taunted him as a “faggot,” has finally come out in a new book.
From John Robert Cassidy in Newsday:
Imagine this — a gay man being one of the greatest professional boxers in the history of the sport. You don’t have [...]
Gay hip hop exec and a closeted pro jock
Former MTV producer Terrance Dean claims in an upcoming book on gays in the hip-hop world that he has had a sexual relationship with a closeted pro athlete he calls “Preston.” On his blog, he describes their first meeting:
He was across the room standing against the wall with a drink in his hand. He was [...]