The Football Association in England has launched a new campaign to end homophobia in soccer. The program, called ‘Opening Doors and Joining In,’ is aimed at making football more inclusive of both players and fans. It clearly shows the FA wants to get serious about the issue (though some question whether it will have much [...]
Posts Tagged ‘John Amaechi’
John Amaechi gives fantastic speech about words of love to DiversityInc
John Amaechi gave a fantastic speech at the DiversityInc 2011 Special Awards earlier this month. His speech was about the power of words. But instead of focusing on the negative words like “faggot,” Amaechi spoke about the power of positive words. Video of the full speech is below. It’s a theme David Testo mentioned to [...]
John Amaechi receives Officer of the British Empire Medal
John Amaechi received his Officer of the British Empire Medal from the Prince of Wales on Wednesday, a high honor for the only openly gay former NBA player. While I sometimes personally think Amaechi slightly overstates the current environment of homophobia in sports, his target on Wednesday — British soccer — was spot-on: If you [...]
Moment #15: Former NBA player John Amaechi comes out
Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Basketball 2007: Amaechi played for two of his five NBA seasons for the Utah Jazz for an owner who, after Amaechi had left the team, refused to show “Brokeback Mountain” in his theaters because of the gay theme. So it was [...]
John Amaechi awarded Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth
Out former NBA player John Amaechi was awarded the Order of the British Empire by the Queen in her Birthday Honours List. It’s a big deal in Britain, handed out to a select few individuals for their chivalry. Amaechi was given the honor for his work with kids. NBA commissioner David Stern praised the honor: [...]
John Amaechi responds to CJ Leslie’s anti-gay tweets
NC State basketball star CJ Leslie tweeted last night that he wouldn’t want gay people in his locker room, and that John Amaechi is “to [sic] big to be gay.” We reached out to Amaechi, who was also on ESPN’s Outside the Lines earlier today, for a response to Leslie’s comments. I would advise him [...]
The Mirror distorts reality with ‘Price gay sports stars paid for coming out’
British tabloid The Mirror published in January a short piece today on the “Price gay sports stars paid for coming out.” It’s a bizarre choice, given that I haven’t heard a negative coming-out story in sports in over 10 years. They include Martina Navratilova (who came out in 1981) and Justin Fashanu (who came out [...]
John Amaechi alleges racism at gay bar
John Amaechi claims that a gay bar in Manchester refused to admit him because he is black. Amaechi went to the bar Crunch Friday night and was allegedly prevented from going in while other members of his party were admitted. Said Amaechi on Twitter: I can’t believe it. I got barred from entering a bar [...]
John Amaechi dunks for London Olympics
The London Olympic Committee isn’t shying away from working with John Amaechi to promote the Olympics in 2012. His latest appearance was at the new basketball arena for the Olympics, where Amaechi showed of his shot and showed he can still dunk. He said he was hurting later that day, but he loved it. Tewksbury [...]
John Amaechi on state of sports homophobia
Despite all the work to open minds that John Amaechi has done in front of the camera and behind the scenes, some people in the gay community had turned a little sour on him because of a perception that he was being too dour in his assessment of homophobia in sports. A couple recent media [...]
Amaechi doesn’t recommend staying closeted
A few days after telling a reporter that he doesn’t recommend gay athletes come out, openly gay former NBA player John Amaechi says he does not necessarily recommend staying in the closet either. First is an interview with Queerty: Under what circumstances would you recommend gay athletes stay in the closet? I’m not recommending it. [...]
John Amaechi tells athletes to stay in the closet
Openly gay former NBA player John Amaechi has dropped a bit of a bomb, telling the Daily Telegraph he would recommend that active professional soccer players stay in the closet. I personally have spoken to 10, 12 current professional footballers who are gay, they exist, I promise you. As it happens none of them have [...]
Reactions to Gareth Thomas’ coming out
The coming out of rugby star Gareth Thomas has, as does every major coming out in sports, generated plenty of discussion about gays in sports. John Amaechi, the last major “Big Four” athlete to come out, talked with the BBC over the weekend. Society in America is not where we are in Britain or in [...]
Athletes stay closeted for the golden ticket
Sports columnist Dave Zirin (right) is the latest to tackle the “why aren’t there any openly gay pro athletes” question in a new column that appeared a couple weeks ago in the San Francisco Chronicle. No new ground broken, though I did like how he plainly put the issue in a few quick sentences: They [...]