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Private Parts 'Fried in Butter'

A Look at the Stories and Pictures That Caught Our Eye

As 2005 heads for the history books we thought you’d like one last look at the year’s top sports stories from a gay perspective, and ones that were just plain entertaining or strange. All items were written by Jim Allen, Jim Buzinski or Cyd Zeigler Jr.

January 

Homophobe Hingis

In 1999, out lesbian tennis star Amelie Mauresmo was beaten by former No. 1 Martina Hingis at the Australian Open and afterwards Hingis said that Mauresmo was "half a man." She's all woman to us, but in any case, Hingis has been on the shelf since retiring due to injuries in 2002. She recently played a match in Thailand and when Amelie was asked about it at a press conference, Mauresmo was blunt: “I have nothing to say, absolutely nothing at all". That wasn't good enough for the questioner, who asked again, which prompted Mauresmo to say "Nothing" and walk out of the press conference. We're going to go out on a limb here and speculate that Amelie Mauresmo hasn't forgiven or forgotten Hingis' remark. 

Homophobia in the Darts World

All six members of a British pub dart team have been banned from league play for life after they taunted a gay and lesbian team with homophobic insults. The teams are based in Brighton, England, and play in the Sussex United Darts League.

The ban came after the “straight” team from the Bevendean Hotel allegedly mocked and scorned the gay players from the Stag pub, according to British media reports. The Bevendean team refused to shake their opponents’ hands, eat their food (the game was at the Stag) and repeatedly made anti-gay remarks.

The best account came from the London Telegraph: Fran Bailey, the captain of the Stag's team, insisted that her team had endured "constant abuse all night", adding: "We heard them say, 'don't shake hands - you never know what you're going to catch'. If their darts fell on the floor, we heard them say, 'I wouldn't bend over to pick up your darts in this pub. I would rather buy a new pack.'

"It is courtesy to supply food when you are the host pub for a match but when we said we were going to bring it out they said, 'We don't want to eat in here because we don't know what we are going to catch.' They even booked their taxi well in advance and we heard them say that they would rather pay waiting charges to the taxi than stay another minute longer in the pub.

"We were intimidated in our own pub. Their behavior was disgusting and offensive." A female Stag player said her opponents taunted her in the toilet and asked her if the was "in the right loo".

A Bevendean representative denied the charges, saying, "I never heard any of my side make any anti-gay comments. The lads in the side are placid and certainly not homophobic. The only conclusion I can make is that it is just sour grapes."

But the league thought otherwise. Secretary Peter Crook said, "We cannot tolerate homophobic behavior of any kind." We’ll drink a pint to that! 

Piazza to Wed Playmate

New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza, who publicly declared in 2002 he was a heterosexual, will reportedly marry ... a man in Canada. No, just kidding! Piazza will wed "Baywatch" actress and former Playmate Alicia Rickter in late January, the New York Post reported.

Piazza, the subject of a 2002 blind item in Post that he was gay, took the unusual step of holding a press conference at the time and stating, "The truth is that I'm heterosexual and date women." At the time, another Playmate that Piazza was dating, Darlene Bernaola, said, "Our sex life was very, very healthy."

Of course, this will put an end to those nasty rumors. It is interesting, though, that having very public relationships with Playmates is the way for jocks to prove they are straight. NFL quarterback Jeff Garcia, who also has denied rumors he is gay, made news when his girlfriend Carmella DeCesare, the 2004 Playboy Playmate of the Year, allegedly karate kicked another woman that Garcia had dated during a tussle at a Cleveland nightclub. 

Sex and the Mascot

Ever want to have sex with a school mascot? Us, either. But apparently some people find the idea alluring, according to an entertaining report in the London Guardian.

"There's a whole sports mascot sort of groupie thing that goes on ... sports mascots get laid like crazy because people are so attracted to them,” Minnesota sexologist Ducky Doolittle (her real name) says. “Women are all over them."

"For some reason, girls think we're immature," Pete Nelson, aka T-Rac, the giant racoon mascot of the Tennessee Titans told the paper. "They think we're funny to begin with, but they get tired of us after a while." Gee, we wonder why.

We did find a gay angle in all of this, a story we happened to miss at the time. As the Guardian wrote: "In 2002 Goldy Gopher, mascot of the University of Minnesota's various sports teams, 'came out' as part of the college's attempt to show solidarity with its gay and lesbian students. Cue hoo-ha. In the face of mounting public pressure, Goldy was officially reclassified as being both genderless and asexual. But even this sordid compromise failed to satisfy the slavering homophobes.

So soon Goldy was seen in an ESPN TV sting chasing women in bikinis. And this was promptly followed by an interview in Playboy in which the formerly homosexual rodent drooled about opposing teams' (female) cheerleaders. There is, it seems, only one sort of sexuality allowed in mascot land. And that is male heterosexuality."

Once we get equal rights in the mascot world, then we all can rest easy. 

Our Favorites from Picture This

Remy Vercoutre, Soccer: Using His Tongue
Oliver Dzuibak, Track and Field: A Man and His Spear
Hawaii Surfing: Tattooed Surfer Dude
Howard Jackson, Football: Human Wishbone
Josh Krough, Swimming: Trying to Prevent Slippage
Jordan Jovtchev, Gymnastics: Showing His Strength

February 

Where to Stick It

We love this quote, from ESPN.com: “Just picture your favorite guy and put it right through the hole." – San Diego Chargers quarterback Drew Brees after winning the skills competition at the NFL Pro Bowl. 

Transgender Golfer Makes Tour Debut

Mianne Bagger is blazing a trail in the women's golf game that hopefully will become unremarked upon over time. She was born a male in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1966 and started playing golf at the age of 8. At the age of 26, she withdrew from competitive golf to undergo gender reassignment surgery, starting to play again in 1998. Bagger now lives in Australia and this week made her debut on the Ladies European Tour (which, naturally, was being played in Australia). It's believed to be the first time a known transgender person has played a women's professional golf tournament. There's been the expected whispers that Mianne did this so that she can have an advantage over women golfers but she reacted to this by saying "That always infuriated me so much, to say 'What's to stop some guy from having a sex-change operation to play the women's tour'? It really exhibits the level of ignorance that exists." Of course, what will ultimately matter is whether Mianne Bagger can play golf at a level that will permit her to make the cut with regularity. 

Urine Prank Gets Suspension

From the “Some Things You Just Can’t Make Up File:” A dozen swimmers from a high school in Michigan were suspended from the team for the rest of the season for pulling a prank on their coach, Channel 6 in Warren reports. The swimmers from Warren Mott High School drove to their coaches' house Sunday from a Super Bowl party and placed a bottle of Gatorade filled with urine on her front porch.

The prank was a tradition where the team member who worked the hardest during the previous meet is presented with a bottle of Gatorade as the "Thirst-Quencher Award," according to the report.

The bottle was left with an "unmistakable" note so the coach would know who left the bottle, said parent David Czapp.

The students say they were sorry, but the story never says if the coach imbibed. 

Bizarre

One of the strangest sports stories we've seen has been playing out in Zimbabwe. Samukaliso Sithole--no, we didn't forget to type in another "h" in the last name--won some track events at a meet in Botswana last year. However, prosecutors have filed charges in Zimbabwe that Sithole misled a woman as to his gender. The woman believed that Sithole was a woman but he was outed as a man by a third party. Upon his outing, Sithole tried to flee, but the police caught him and a medical exam was undertaken. Sithole's explanation? He was born congenitally deformed, he claims, and although he went to a tribal healer who proclaimed him a female, the ritual wasn't completed because Sithole couldn't make full payments to the healer.

The The Zimbabwe Athletics Association has said that Samukaliso Sithole could be stripped of all medals and prize money. This wouldn't be the first time that a man competing as a woman was found out. Stella Walsh won the 1932 Olympic women's 100 metres, but upon the death of Walsh in 1980, it was discovered that she was really a man. It is not unknown in the medical field that a newborn's gender is unclear and a decision has to be made on which gender the child will be raised as. This might be one of those cases but we suspect that Samukaliso Sithole will end up being the Zimbabwean Stella Walsh. 

Yogi Sues

Yogi Berra is 79 and one would think he’d be flattered to be mentioned in the same sentence as “sex.” But no. The New York Yankees legend has filed a $10 million lawsuit against Turner Broadcasting Systems for using his name in an ad for “Sex and the City” he calls hurtful.” The suit said the ad "created a false image of [Berra] that is both contrary to his personality, lifestyle and character as well as abhorrent to him personally."

The ad depicts the show’s sex kitten Samantha and the words: "Yogasm: a) a type of yo-yo trick b) sex with Yogi Berra c) what Samantha has with a guy from yoga class." 

Our Favorites from Picture This

Tomasz Wylenzek, Canoeing: Hard Body
Jeff Hagen, Brent Lawson, Basketball: Golden Gophers
Patrick Goots, Soccer: Golden Stud
Fernando Torres, Ivan de la Pena, Soccer: Lucky Head Rub
Rugby: Calendar boys
Kareem Streete-Thompson, Track and Field: High-Stepping

March

Gay OK With NFL 

“GAY” is now OK at the NFL Shop. 

The league reversed itself and will now allow personalized jerseys to have “GAY” on the back. This decision came one day after Outsports printed an article about the policy (see below). Previously, a person trying to buy such a jersey had it rejected with the words: "This field should not contain a naughty word." (this wording was changed in response to our story to "The personalization entered cannot be accepted."). 

Dan Masonson, a league spokesman, told Outsports that “there was no message there” to having “gay” on a list of 1,159 banned words. After being made aware of the issue, the NFL Shop will now allow “gay” jerseys, said Masonson. “It should have not been in the [naughty words] filter,” he said.

The words you can’t put on an NFL jersey. The single most-view story in Outsports’ history.

Gay Goalie Honored

Openly gay Dartmouth lacrosse goalie Andrew Goldstein has been named College Sports Television Student-Athlete of the Week for his stellar effort in goal against Maryland last Tuesday, leading his team to victory, 7-6. Last fall, Goldstein wrote a first-person column for Outsports about being openly gay and just one of the guys on his team.

It was the first time that Dartmouth (3-1) beat #4 Maryland in eight tries. In the schools' previous meetings, Maryland had won by an average of 10 points. Goldstein had a phenomenal .684 save percentage in the game and stopped two shots on goal in the final 45 seconds to seal the victory.

The preseason All-America is recognized as one of the best goalies in the nation. He's a senior majoring in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and was named second-team All-Ivy last season. You can track some of his games live on Collegesports.com

No Queer Eye for This Red Sox Guy

Boston Red Sox pitcher Mike Timlin said he would not have participated in a "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" makeover that some of his teammates did in spring training.

"I don't believe in how some people live,'' Timlin told the Hartford Courant. "`When it comes time and you're standing in front of God, you have to face judgment for what you do. Now if you're doing something wrong, it is my responsibility as a Christian and a human being to try to guide you away from doing something wrong. All I can do is try to guide you. I can't lead you.''

If by "doing something wrong," Timlin meant someone wearing wearing a check shirt with striped pants, we agreed they should incur the wrath of the Almighty. But we suspect Timlin is just another homophobe who masks his prejudice with his religion. (In the same article, teammate Trot Nixon stressed he wasn't criticizing his teammates for receiving makeovers. It just wasn't something he would be interested in because of his Christian beliefs.) 

Coach Licks Players – Literally

An Oregon high school football coach has a new remedy for open wounds: have your coach lick them. While this may be the fantasy of some, it was the horror of the parents of one player whose cut knee was licked by the boy's coach.

Central Linn High coach Scott Reed has admitted to the incident. According to the Associated Press, police investigated but Reed was not arrested - no law exists in Oregon against licking someone's open wounds. Reed maintains it was consensual - no reports have disputed that fact.

Reed has been put on probation by the school and ordered to take a "bloodborne pathogens" course.

Legal or not, it's pretty wild behavior. We can only imagine what signs will be held high by the fans of opposing teams next football season: "Neverland Ranch" comes to mind.

That is, if any parents let their kids play for this guy again. Though he hasn't had any facial surgery, this is as bizarre as anything Michael Jackson has ever done (naming his baby "blanket" excluded). 

Bonds: My Testicles Haven't Shrunk

We can't really think of anything snarky to say about these two Barry Bonds comments regarding his alleged steroid use, so we'll just cut and paste 'em and look on in amazement at what a detour in to farce the major league baseball steroids scandal has taken (Note: steroids are supposed to cause a head to grow and testicles to shrink):

"What's all this about my head size? My hat size is the same today as when I started. My head hasn't grown. I've always been a 7 1/4 to a 7 3/8 my whole career. You can go check".

"I can tell you my testicles are the same size. They haven't shrunk. They're the same and work just the same as they always have." 

Our Favorites from Picture This

Ronald Pognon, Track and Field: Quite a Wingspan
Jean de Villiers, Rugby: Making a Grab
David Nathan, Bodybuilding: Out of the Pool
David Lee, Basketball: Victorious Gator
Brett Hawke, Swimming: He's #1
Igor Biscan, Lee Carsley, Soccer: Parts Revealed
Eric Byrnes, Baseball: Powder Puff
Ivan Nikolov, Bodybuilding: Hanging Out

April 

Sperm Donation on the LPGA

One of the stereotypes that drives women athletes nuts, no matter their orientation, is that all female jocks are lesbians. Not true, of course, as this heartwarming story of family values on the women’s pro golf tour demonstrates. A former male caddie for Jackie Gallagher-Smith filed a lawsuit claiming that she had seduced him, with the sole motivation of getting pregnant. It seems that the married Gallagher-Smith claimed that she was having trouble conceiving with her husband and that the former caddie, Gary Robinson, was drafted to help the process along. So, if someone claims that "all women golfers are lesbians", remind them of this story. 

Out Aussie Gymnast

Trampoline is not a high-profile sport, but we applaud any jock that has the guts to come out. We received this from a reader in Australia:

On Australian TV this week they ran a brief article on the official coming out of 28 year old World Champion gymnast Ji Wallace. Ji said being gay was a condition that sat naturally with him and he was very happy to tell the world about it. Ji said that being honest can make you attractive - and he's particularly hoping to attract a friendly sponsor so he can suitably prepare for the 2006 Olympics in Bejing.

Ji has been competing for Australia since he was 15 (1992) and won the silver medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympics in the discipline of Trampoline. In 1996 he was World Champion in Double Mini Tramp (DMT). He has consistently figured among the best athletes in his field in the world.

Man of Hate

Ex-Seattle Seahawks linebacker Ken Hutcherson is an influential evangelical minister in Seattle and stopping same-sex marriage and gay rights is his primary agenda. He calls same-sex marriage "the greatest danger to America." In 2004, he held a "Mayday for Marriage" rally that drew 20,000 in Seattle. Months later, he led a similar rally in Washington, D.C., that drew 100,000.

In April, Hutcherson met privately with a Microsoft official and threatened a boycott of its products if it did not rescind its support for a gay rights measure before the Washington Senate. Coincidence or not, Microsoft, which had supported the measure, decided to stay neutral and the bill lost by 1 vote. "If I got God on my side, what's a Microsoft? What's a Microsoft? It's nothing," Hutcherson told the New York Times. "I kick 'em out," he said if he discovers a parishioner is gay. "I do it three or four times a year. You bring up their names during the church service, and if they won't repent, won't turn away from sin, you have to kick 'em out." 

Locker Room Surprise

The last time we saw French tennis player Michael Llorda it was on TV at the Australian Open, where he was changing between sets (pictured right), revealing a lean, tight body and leaving little to the imagination. So this following story is probably not a surprise: Two weeks ago, at the Nasdaq-100 in Miami, Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic opened his locker and found a naked Llorda awaiting him. Thanks to the BBC, which provided this blow-by-blow description:

Ljubicic: "I saw the door slightly open, so I went to open it and then, shock, complete shock--there was Michael Llodra, naked in my locker!
"He was looking at me, I was looking at him. I said, 'What the hell are you doing here?'
"He said: 'I'm trying to focus for my match.'
"I said: 'It's 10 to 10--you're playing at 10 o'clock!'
"He replied: 'I'm trying to get positive energy from you. You're winning a lot of matches this year'."

Ljubicic went on to win his match that day, and he obviously gave Llorda enough energy that he won his doubles match.

Llorda stands 6'3" and Ljubicic was impressed that he fit in the locker. "The locker, it's not a big locker, it's a small locker. It's not easy to get in that locker, I'm telling you," said Ljubicic.

"He is not a small guy but very flexible. Very, very flexible."

How come this never happens to us when we hit the lockers? 

A.I. Wants to Make Out With His Coach

Oft-maligned 76er Allen Iverson finally got the head coach he wanted: former Sixer star and assistant coach Maurice Cheeks. In fact, "The Answer" was so happy with the selection of Cheeks that he wanted to get a little jiggy with him.

"Bringing in Mo was icing on the cake," Iverson said at a press conference Tuesday. "I didn't want to do it in front of all the cameras, but I wanted to take him in the back and kiss him on the mouth."

An odd comment from Iverson, who is still remembered for making some nasty comments about gay people on an album that was never released a couple years ago. I guess that "City of Brotherly Love" thing is getting to him. 

High School Gay Football Play Draws Fire

It's amazing what a little one-act play can stir up in high school. Sabrina Audrey Jess, a high school student in Ashburn, Va., has had quite a couple of months since her plays, "Offsides," about a high school football player who comes out of the closet, was produced at Stone Bridge High in February.

"I had a lot of senior friends last year who went through a really hard time," Jess told the Washington Post. "Some of them didn't tell anybody because of how scared they were. There were some who told people, and their parents said they were going to get kicked out of their house, or they had to go to counseling, and if they didn't go to counseling they would be forced to leave the house -- it was just a lot of stuff. And it didn't make sense to me."

So Jess wrote the play. According to the Washington Post, after it was performed, parents approached the county school board about keeping the play from being performed again and began to distribute leaflets in protest of the play.

"I try to promote tolerance in a school where there is not enough among teenagers and am in turn flooded with the intolerance of their parents," Jess told the Post. "People who are negatively commenting on my play are proving my point."

While many parents in Ashburn are freaking out, Jess is becoming quite the little celebrity. According to the Post, she has been honored by the Human Rights Campaign and PFLAG for her work.

It's just amazing how strong kids are today. Some people may look at that as a bad thing - that they are unnecessarily defiant. Sometimes, maybe that's true. But, that defiance also has really positive outcomes - like this one. With any luck, more towns like Ashburn will start putting on more plays like "Offsides," and more high school quarterbacks, point guards and goalies will feel just a little more comfortable with their feelings about other men. 

Our Favorites from Picture This

Otis George, Taquan Dean, Basketball: Ready for Final Four
Brett Hawke, Swimming: Flexing in the Pool
Johan Kenkhuis, Swimming: Openly Gay Olympic Swimmer
Jason Veritek, Kevin Millar, Baseball: Getting Cheeky
Didier Drogba, Soccer: We Scored!
Michael Owen, Soccer: Looking Pensive
Cristiano Ronaldo, Soccer: Showing It Off
Unknown, Cricket: Playing in His Jockstrap?

May 

Johnny Damon Gay-Positive

In next week's Newsweek, Red Sox slugger Johnny Damon has a positive perspective on a gay teammate: "If someone came out on the baseball field, I don't think it would be a big deal...If I had a gay teammate, I'm sure we'd keep slapping each other on the butt."

If only more athletes had the self-confidence Damon obviously has, we could probably find a few hundred thousand volunteers. 

Beck's Beauty Tips:

Soccer star and Posh-Spice-hubby David Beckham has revealed his deepest, darkets beauty tips after People magazine named him the world's most beautiful sports icon.

"I've learned a lot. Being out in the cold and rain doesn't help your skin, so moisturiser in the morning is a big thing. And at night it's the eye cream. A manicure is probably my favourite pampering splurge."

Beckham also told the mag that his wife, former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, is a big fan of his firm butt, but that his feet leave much to be desired. Time for a pedicure, I guess. 

ESPN’s Does Gay Story

ESPN on its Sunday SportsCenter ran an eight-minute segment on Andrew Goldstein, the All-American Dartmouth lacrosse goalie who came out to his team after the 2003 season.

Reported by Greg Garber, the segment was moving as it told of Goldstein’s journey of acceptance of himself and of his teammates’ acceptance of him. While I could have done with less of the syrupy soft piano music, the piece was effective in conveying what gay athletes face.

The coolest part was footage of Goldstein scoring a goal against Syracuse in the 2003 NCAA playoffs, the first by a goalie in tournament play in 30 years. His teammates remarked that the feat marked Goldstein as a different kind of player, something they soon discovered was more true than they had ever realized. Hats off to ESPN for airing the segment but especially to Goldstein for sharing his story. He proved that a jock can come out in a team sport in a positive fashion. 

Our Favorites from Picture This

Competitors, Triathlon: Left Turn Signals
Champions, Track and Field: Four to the Floor
Lars Conrad, Swimming: Classic Swimmer's Body
Tommy Rowlands, Wrestling: Up and Over
Luke Hoetjes, Triathlon: Out of the Water
Andy Roddick, Tennis: Hot Roddick
Djimi Traore, Djibril Cisse , Soccer: Shirtless Champs
Andriy Shevchenko, Soccer: Piggy-Back Ride

June 

When You Gotta Go

Relief pitchers for the Seattle Mariners were chagrined to discover that the bullpen at San Diego’s Petco Park does not have a bathroom. This forced Matt Thornton on Friday to climb a fence and use a public restroom, the Seattle Times reported. Thornton was forced to wait in line with the fans, which set up at least one interesting encounter.

"I met a guy named Stan, who invented a baseball cap with a handle so you can take it off fast to catch foul balls," Thornton said. "He said he tested it at a batting cage on pitches at 75 mph and caught five before the seams started to give out."

We’re not sure if the Padres deliberately omitted a restroom in the bullpen so as to possibly have an opposing pitcher trapped in the public bathroom during a crucial stretch of the game. Gives a new meaning to “reliever.” 

Safe Sex

The German city of Dortmund is installing a series of wooden "sex garages" in time for next year's soccer World Cup to meet an expected demand in prostitution, Reuters reports. "The World Cup has put us under added time pressure, as we don't want a situation where prostitutes and their clients disturb residential areas," an official said. Germany allows prostitution in certain areas.

Reuters says an estimated 40,000 hookers are expected to descend on Germany for next summer's World Cup. Dortmund plans to arrange the Dutch-designed wooden huts in an area with condom machines and snack bar.

"Men have to get used to them of course, but a high percentage accept them because they can protect their anonymity," the official said. "That said, there will always be those who want to go behind a bush, under a bridge or into the woods."

I always love the rather practical approach most of Europe takes to things like this. I especially like the snack bar idea; it reminds me of the "Seinfeld" episode where George took food to bed with his girlfriend during sex and Jerry dubbed him the "Fornicating Gourmet." 

Homophobic Coach Out

We admit to a bit of schaudenfreud upon hearing that the University of Florida decided not to renew the contract of women’s softball coach Karen Johns. It was Johns who kicked senior Andrea Zimbardi off the team in 2003 after learning she was a lesbian. Zimbardi had alleged that Johns created an atmosphere of alienation for anyone not sharing her Christian beliefs, outed other coaches and players as lesbians, and reneged on an agreement not to retaliate against Zimbardi when she took her concerns to the university’s athletic administration.

Zimbardi fought her dismissal and the result was that the University of Florida agreed to provide diversity training dealing with homophobia to all its coaches, athletic directors and staff. It was too late to save Zimbardi’s career, but not too late to help set a precedent.

Johns was fired after her Gators were eliminated from the NCAA tournament in May. Her teams went 192-131 overall but were only 3-10 in the Southeast Conference tournament and won only three NCAA tourney games. She also had a lot of turnover on her staff. Athletic Director Jeremy Foley said, “It became evident that this program was not achieving the success that we envisioned.”

We  suspect that the Zimbardi incident also played a role. The university received a lot of negative press about Johns’ behavior and I wonder whether it affected recruiting. I’m not naïve to think that Johns would have been fired if she had more on-field success, but by making the atmosphere of homophobia public, Zimbardi cast an unwelcome light on the high-profile university where image is important. 

Diversity Training Video Backfires

In trying to teach incoming players how to handle the media and be sensitive to diversity, people in the San Francisco 49ers front office created a “training video” that featured an overtly stereotypical Chinese man, two lesbians stripping and making out before getting married, and the “alleged” mayor of San Francisco (played by now-former Niners PR man Kirk Reynolds) accepting bribes, swearing at constituents and getting naked with three hot, topless women. Reynolds was fired and the 49ers apologized.

‘I Don’t Believe in Being Gay’

Chicago White Sox player Carl Everett doesn’t believe in dinosaurs (they’re not in the Bible) and he doesn’t believe in gays.

"Gays being gay is wrong. Two women can't produce a baby, two men can't produce a baby, so it's not how it's supposed to be. . . . I don't believe in gay marriages. I don't believe in being gay," Everett told Maxim magazine, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Everett made these comments despite telling the Tribune that he had gay teammates whom he accepted. Evertt also told Maxim that “It's proven that 99 percent of baseball fans have no idea what they're watching;" and that “If everybody in the world got on steroids, we'll still lose more kids to a war than we will from steroids."

My first instinct is to rip Everett but that is modified if in fact he had gay teammates and was accepting. Make no mistake: What he said was offensive and unacceptable. Words can be powerful but actions often speak louder. I would like to know more about this before totally condemning him. His ravings about gays and marriage and babies seem more formed from religious ignorance than hatred. He has a reputation for being, as someone said, 51 cards shy of a full deck. 

Queer Eye for the Red Sox Guy

In another sign that we have turned some sort of cultural corner, Tuesday’s “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” had its season premier with its much-ballyhooed makeover of Boston Red Sox players Johnny Damon, Jason Varitek, Kevin Millar, Tim Wakefield, and Doug Mirabelli. For an hour viewers heard the word “gay” said comfortably in the context of sports, along with paraffin waxing, manicures, pumpkin facials and micro-dermabrasion.

The segment began with an intro by sportscaster Bob Costas, another sign “Queer Eye” is firmly accepted in the mainstream. The Red Sox players, shown almost all the time in the presence of their wives, had no problem primping and preening as they got their makeovers. “Who said gay was bad?” Millar asked, clad in a fluffy cotton robe and soaking his feet in water mixed with rose petals. “I am now gay.” After Varitek arrived by helicopter for his treatment, one “Queer Eye” member quipped, “You flew all the way in a helicopter to get your back waxed—that is gay.”

Along with the makeover (which took up much less of the show than most episodes) was a feel-good story about helping a Florida Little League rebuild its stadium that was badly damaged in last year’s hurricanes. This part was cloying (of course) and allowed an easy way for the gays and jocks to come together.

In a terrific column about the episode and gays and sports in general, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Gwen Knapp quotes Damon saying, "If there's a gay guy in baseball, we have to help him out. I'd smack him on the butt, just like I do everybody else.'' It will be attitudes like Damon’s (a star whose jock credentials can’t be questioned) that will go a long way with helping gays being accepted in sports; that and a pumpkin facial. 

Our Favorites from Picture This

Roman Sebrle, Track and Field: High Five
Ben Cohen, Rugby: Flower Boy
Champions, Baseball: Baseball Dog Pile
Athletes, Inline Hockey: Helmet Heads
Trey Hardee, Track and Field: The Winner
Xavier Carter, Bennie Brazell , Track and Field: Tiger Beat
Winners, Track and Field: Italian Stallions
Super Bowl Champs, Football: Showing Off the Jewelry

July

Active Pro Athlete Comes Out

Well, no, not really; we’d all be dead because the Earth would have already spun off its axis if someone did, obviously. However, Cyd briefly mentioning Queer as Folk below reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to write about.

I love Queer as Folk (QaF hereafter). I fully admit it: the US version, for long stretches of its five year run, has sucked more than any television show has a right to suck. Awful writing, hideous directors, bad acting, an almost total lack of queer people of color as anything other than sex objects, Toronto doubling as Pittsburgh, the works. However, something happened at the end of season four: the show became consistently alright. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but around the same time, the show introduced a closeted football player named Drew Boyd, played by Matt Battaglia. Drew plays quarterback for a fictional team that I think is an Arena League team (definitely not the Steelers). Drew hooked up with series regular Emmett Honeycutt (the wonderful Peter Paige) for anonymous sex, but ran off when Emmett pushed him to come out publicly after finding out who he was.

Now, when QaF has tried to be "relevant" and "topical" and "controversial" in the past, that’s where a lot of the suckage has come in; the writers have the subtlety of a train wreck usually. Lo and behold, however, they’ve handled the Drew Boyd coming out story pretty well. Earlier this season, Drew reappeared and told Emmett that he was being blackmailed about being gay but wanted to be with him, he was tired of the closet. A few episodes ago, Drew came out to the public and it actually showed what I suspect will actually happen when an active pro athlete finally does the same in about 2819: the media frenzy, the "Ohmygawd, that guy I cheer is a fag?!?!" from redneck fans, the clueless-about-sports gay boys going nuts over something they really don’t understand, the angst of the athlete about endorsements, his new role in society and his safety.

In the bad old days of QaF, Drew would have come roaring out of the closet sounding like a fully formed gay activist, spouting the latest queer talking points; but they show his doubts, his fears, his apprehension about his place in the gay community and best of all, don’t chide the character for that. While I’m utterly cynical about the possibility of an active team sport pro athlete coming out without being arrested in Fire Island Pines and having it splashed all over the tabloids, QaF, in its own gawky way, shows a bit of the human side of that potential story. Queer as Folk is ending after this season and I hope that in the Final Episode Ever Emmett and Drew end up together, madly in love. Now if they could only make the few football scenes they’ve shown more realistic. --Jim Allen 

Martina Settles With Sponsor

Martina Navratilova has settled her lawsuit against Rainbow Card, the gay-targeted credit card for which Navratilova was a spokesperson from 1995 to 2004.

The lesbian champion tennis player had withdrawn her support for Rainbow Card when the company began associating with gay-themed TV shows "The L Word" and "Queer As Folk," which Navratilova has allegedly called "depraved."

It had always seemed like a strange tiff. My vision had been Martina jumping up and down, stomping her feet and screaming about a relationship that had apparently brought her a paycheck for 10 waning years of her career. For both parties, I'm glad it's over and that they can move on. -Cyd Zeigler jr. 

Hewitt Calls Ref a "Poof"

The world's No. 2 tennis player, Lleyton Hewitt, had some apologizing to do on Tuesday after calling an official a "poof" during a Davis Cup match against Argentina's Guillermo Coria. Calling someone a "poof" is like calling someone a "fag."

"Numerous times he said, 'Allez, come on', the whole day as well. He grabbed his private parts at one stage, three times in a row, and I'm about to serve and I asked him if he had an issue - or if he could find it [his penis]," Coria told the Associated Press following the match.

Hewitt at first denied making the "poof" comment, but videotape has shown otherwise. On Tuesday, Hewitt apologized for his comments.

"I regret having said what I said in the heat of the match," Hewitt said. "I apologize for any offense I may have caused to any individual or groups."

In other words: "My manager says I should just apologize, so here's the weakest apology I can make."

To me, this comment doesn't sting as much as those of so many others. A big part of that is probably because the word "poof" just doesn't mean what it does to so many overseas. Still, I think it's good that the International Tennis Federation has fined Hewitt for his off-color remarks to the official. Hopefully he actually learned a lesson from this, other than that it's a smart thing to apologize, whether you mean it or not. -Cyd Zeigler jr. 

Gay Ruggers on TV

The documentary “Go Dragons,” airing on the new gay cable channel Logo, is an entertaining look at the Chicago Dragons gay rugby team and their quest to win their first game. The documentary examines how the team was formed and the motivations for the various players. The team, which competes in a mainstream league, is very green and raw, with only a handful of guys who have played before. Nevertheless, they give it the old college try and win a measure of self-respect.

The best segments involve the team playing in rural Illinois against teams who have “redneck” written all over them. Yet, we hear several expressions of tolerance and acceptance from the opposing players, who seem to care less that their opponents are gay. This is evidenced by a post-game party featuring lots of beer and some nudity (following a rugby tradition of some sort).

The Dragons comes across as a mostly likeable bunch, though there is a jarring meanness as some of the players diss the looks of players from the Atlanta Bucks, a gay club that has invited the Dragons down to Hotlanta for a match. One Atlanta player is especially singled out for ridicule and one hopes he never sees the documentary; this left a bad taste in my mouth.

There is also an off-putting scene where the Dragons express shock at losing to the Bucks. They can accept being whipped by straight guys but losing to another bunch of gay guys seems to really bug them. During the team’s halftime speech, two Dragons refer to the Bucks as “pussies.” It had me rooting for the Bucks.

It’s a shame that some of the Dragons buy into the myth that gay jocks are somehow less than and use the same language to belittle their opponents that straight guys have used forever. I would have thought a gay team was beyond that. The Dragons were unsuccessful on the field not because they are gay but because they aren’t yet very good; I would assume success will come as the team matures both in its abilities and attitudes. --Jim Buzinski 

Our Favorites from Picture This

Luciano Figueroa, Soccer: Yeaaaahhhhh!!!!!
George Hincapie, Cycling: Ready to Roll
Markus Rogan, Swimming: Floating His Boat
Asafa Powell, Track and Field: He's #1
Alexy Shabunya, Bodybuilding: Buff in the Pool
Zheng Chen, Jingang Wang , Rowing: Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Tony Gonzalez, Football: Top Tight End
Justin Wilcox, Bodybuilding: Showing His Guns

August

Ozzie Guillen on Gays

In addition, according to Dave Buscema, a columnist with the Times-Herald Record in New York, Guillen had "just about an hour before, around a group of female Japanese reporters ... called outfielder Tadahito Iguchi 'queer,' jokingly saying he should want to go out with one of them."

We would like to think Guillen meant no offense and he did said he needs to be careful with his words. But equating gay people to child molesters is one of the biggest slurs homophobes have faced and Guillen is at least guilty of gross insensitivity. And his comment about Iguchi being "queer" is also offensive and adds to the sense that Guillen thinks making fun of gay people is humorous and acceptable.

How ironic that just minutes before he made his child molester comments, Guillen expressed offense at remarks by a San Francisco radio host who insulted the intelligence of Latin players. Guillen, who is from Venezuela, said about the anti-Latin remarks: "It's ignorant. It's just ignorant. You have someone dealing with the media, dealing with people, to say something like that, that's ignorant, man."

Gay Day Protest

The festive atmosphere of Gay Community Night at the Philadelphia Phillies was interrupted when two men unfurled -- with permission of the team -- a banner covering a row of eight seats in the high right-field stands that read, “Homosexuality is Sin. Christ Can Set You Free.”

Sparks Owner on Firing a Lesbian

The Los Angeles Sparks are embroiled in a controversy about the release of a lesbian player, and Sparks owner Johnny Buss is talking about it.

Latasha Byears was an important part of the Sparks' championship runs, playing a powerful power forward. In 2003, she was accused of sexual assault and was quickly released byt the team; she hasn't been picked up by anyone else since. It was around that same time that the Lakers' Kobe Bryant was accused of the same thing: sexually assaulting a woman. Not only was he not released, but he was vocally supported by his team. The Lakers are owned by Johnny Buss' brother, Jerry.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Buss said that gay issues are a topic of discussion at the team and league levels, and that he knows there are gay players in the League.

"We've discussed homosexuality in the NBA and WNBA," Buss told the L.A. Times. "We don't ask. If you look at the general population, you could come up with statistics on who is homosexual and who is not. I don't know why that would be any different in professional sports. Now it's one of those things that people won't come out and disclose. I think they should. I know there's a lot of prejudice in America and it's sickening to me."

He said that Byears' being lesbian didn't influence the decision to fire her. "What I have learned over all the years, you're just better off being blind to certain lifestyles," he said.

It certainly seems strange that the Lakers would vocally support Bryant at the same time the Sparks cut Byears, when both were accused of the same thing. It's no secret that gays and lesbians are treated differently by society, and by sports. I just wish the powers that be, like Johnny Buss, would either start treating us the same way; or at least have some balls and come clean about it. -Cyd Zeigler jr. 

David Carr Is Cute:

Houston Texans quarterback David Carr came to training camp with a new haircut, after letting his locks grow long last season. See before and after photos. Guard Zach Wiegert told Carr he looked like a "European supermodel," according to the Houston Chronicle.

Center Steve McKinney seemed to upset his quarterback when he called him cute. “I said he looked cute," McKinney said. "He didn't like that comment, so I said, 'Let me rephrase it: You look handsome.' " Carr also didn’t like that, and told the Chronicle: "I told him I'd slap him if he said that again." Oooh, how butch! McKinney wouldn’t give it up, saying: "He's just real sensitive about the way he looks. If somebody told me I was cute, I'd take it as a compliment."

Carr, who goes out of his way to praise the Lord and mention his wife in almost every interview I’ve seen of him, fingered the latter for his new look. "My wife (Melody) wanted me to cut it," said Carr. "It's kind of what I've had my whole life, so I'm used to it. I feel like I've lost 10 pounds." 

Thai Boxer Sentenced for Porn

Sirimongkol Singwancha, a leading Thai boxer, has been fined and sentenced to jail for allowing pornographic pictures of himself to appear in the gay-targeted Thai magazine Heat. (Picture here.) Sirimongkol was reportedly fined the equivalent of about $4,800; according to Gay.com, the fine was reduced to about $100, and his jail sentence of six months has been suspended for at least two years, because he has cooperated with authorities.

According to Queer Day, Sirimongkol said the pictures were originally taken "for fun and for them to view in privacy. I regret (it) and I'd like to apologize to everyone. I'm very stressed now and sometimes losing sleep. I hope that I would be forgiven for what I had done."

The photos appeared in the magazine two years ago. But, the magazine issue was just discovered by police when they raided a newsstand in Northern Bangkok. The photos were full-frontal images with several featuring his erect penis. Apparently, this is all a part of Thailand's crackdown on the porn industry. The pics are now making their way around the Internet - shocker.

Why can't some of the top athletes in the U.S. decide to take some nude pictures and accidentally leak them to gay magazines? I mean, surely Andy Roddick or some fourth-string NFL receiver could use some extra cash. -Cyd Zeigler jr. 

Private Parts “Fried in Butter”

This qualifies as the most bizarre sports story of the year. The Australia Wallabies rugby team, as part of a male bonding exercise on a trip to South Africa, graphically detailed which of their teammates they would most like to eat.

For example, Stephen Larkham wanted Drew Mitchell's testicles for dessert, while Chris Whitaker preferred Rocky Elsom's private parts "fried in butter, garlic, chilli and parsley." The story came out after the players left questionnaires with their eating preferences in a restaurant, which then gave it to the Cape Times. Team management gave the players the question: "The Alive Scenario - Who to Cook?" during a gathering at a local Cape Town bar, asking them who should be "sacrificed in the name of culinary delights." The players were instructed: "You must nominate a player for each dish and how you would prepare them. Ways to present them include on a spit, marinated, skewered, boiled, in dumplings, etc. Be creative, but it is your view only. No comparing notes."

It was based on the true story of the 1972 rugby team in Uruguay whose plane crashed in the Andes, forcing survivors to resort to cannibalism.

Wallaby Matt Dunning, who looks like he could feed the entire team with his 253 pounds, was especially popular. Lote Tuqiri reportedly wanted to prepare him for starters in a sweet and sour sauce, while George Gregan said Dunning would be part of his main dish of "sweet pork, slowly roasted,” the Sydney Morning Herald said. Tuqiri was also fond of Morgan Turinui for dessert, explaining: "The amount of sweets he puts in, it's got to rub off in his meat somewhere." This prompted Rugby Heaven to call the dish “Morgan Tiramisu.”

If I were playing the Wallabies, I would get really nervous and start running if I heard them bragging that they eat their opponents for lunch. This also would allow ESPN to branch out with its new "Competitive Eating" show. First up, the Oakland Raiders slow-roast Warren Sapp.--Jim Buzinski 

Our Favorites from Picture This

Competitors, Swimming: On Your Mark ...
Medalists, Water Polo: Celebration in Blue
Kelsey Nakanelua, Track and Field: Talk About Ripped
Bryan Clay, Track and Field: Success!
French players, Rugby: Showing Their Assets
Matt Welsh, Swimming: Perfect Form
Olivier Marceau, Triathlon: Long and Sleek
Jeff Francoeur, Baseball: A Star Is Born
Jan-Michael Gambill, Tennis: Buff on the Court

September

Shirtless NHL

American pro sports have lagged behind the rest of the world in showing us some skin. While rugby players across Europe are taking off their clothes in calendars, American pro athletes seem reticent to even show us a pec or two. Maybe the NHL, in its desperation and with its Canadian and European influences, is loosening the drawstrings.

Sidney Crosby, the Pittsburgh Penguins' latest draftee right out of high school, certainly caught my eye with his half-shirtless photo in October's Vanity Fair. Let's hope we'll be seeing more of Crosby in the coming months. Apparently, according to Crosby's agent, Pat Brisson, the NHL has been contacting magazines about using Crosby in photo spreads. I for one am glad Vanity Fair took them up on their offer. Even if more don't, here's hoping Crosby's Web site starts filling up that "photos" section soon.

The Ottawa Citizen had an interesting take on the photo and the NHL's initiative around Crosby: "Crosby's beefcake shot is one more sign that the NHL is trying to expand its appeal in the U.S., and among Generation Y fans -- those between the ages of about 16 and 25, said Frank Pons, an assistant professor of sports marketing and consumer behaviour at the University of San Diego who studied hockey marketing as an MBA and PhD student in Quebec City and Montreal."

What's interesting about it to me is that it doesn't say they're trying to attract women with the beefcake shot, but "Generation Y" - that age group that is less and less heterocentric and more and more sexually aware. It's that generation of young men who will look at a picture of a hot guy and actually say, "wow, that guy's hot." That the NHL is obviously acknowledging this is promising. -Cyd Zeigler jr. 

Not-So-Pretty in Pink

"The pink locker room" sounds like a book about gay athletes. That's exactly what the University of Iowa athletic department was probably thinking when they painted the visitors' locker room at Kinnick Stadium pink. Now, a professor is giving the pink locker room the red light.

Erin Buzuvis has said that the pink color scheme in the visitors' locker room promotes sexism and homophobia, and she is planning to challenge whether the color scheme violates NCAA policy. The pink locker room goes back to the days of former Iowa coach Hayden Fry and has been expanded in the current renovation of the stadium. Everything is now pink, including the carpeting, metal lockers, brick walls, sinks, shower floor and the urinals.

Now Buzuvis is claiming that she is getting death and rape threats because she dares question the legitimacy of painting a visitor's locker room pink. I'm not remotely surprised.

Instead of painting the visitor's locker room the same color as the Iowa team's locker room, I say paint the Iowa locker room pink. -Cyd Zeigler jr. 

Black Cocks

Get your mind out of the gutter, this isn’t about African-American men’s penises. For marketing reasons, the New Zealand national badminton team—yes, badminton is another sport that’s huge outside of U.S. borders—decided to call themselves the Black Cocks (the shuttlecock is the thing they wack over the net and the great New Zealand rugby team is the All Blacks) and it worked, sort of. They got sponsorship from condom companies and so forth, but this week, the national governing body conceded that the nickname was just too gimmicky, with too much potential for problems in less sarcastic countries that they dropped the nickname. With that decision goes a headline writers dream name; for example, the article I saw this item in was entitled "New Zealand finds Black Cocks hard to swallow". --Jim Allen 

Shaq Chases Down Gay-Bashers:

Miami Heat center Shaquille O'Neal helped the police arrest a man suspected of assaulting a gay couple over the weekend.

Shaq was driving around South Beach at 3 a.m. on Saturday when he noticed a man, Michael Gonzalez, 18, yell anti-gay slurs at the couple from a car. Gonzalez then got out of the car and threw a bottle at the two men, hitting one of them. Gonzalez then got back into the car. As it sped off, O'Neal trailed behind, flagging down a police officer who arrested the man.

O'Neal has long talked about how he intends to become a police officer after his basketball-playing days are over. In fact, he is in the process of joining the Miami Beach police.

"For this incident I don't want to be credited as an individual who does police work," O'Neal said in a statement, according to the Associated Press. "I want to be credited as a Miami Beach police officer."

I can only imagine that the alleged attacker had a second thought about when he'd done when he noticed he was being trailed by a 7-foot-1 brick house. -Cyd Zeigler jr. 

Our Favorites from Picture This

Sebastian Kehl, Soccer: Bedroom Eyes
Dudes, Surfing: Surf's Up
Brady Quinn, Football: The Mighty Quinn
Darrel Batman, Track and Field: Rounding the Turn
Ivan Tikhon, Track and Field: Ball and Chain
Myles Hannaman, Bodybuilding: Mr. Symmetry

October

McGill Shame

McGill University in Montreal is one of the most respected institutions of higher learning in North America. Sadly, the university is now in the midst of a shameful scandal that is repeated in other places far too often. On Tuesday, the school cancelled the football team’s season after a hazing incident that involves one of the favorite tricks in that pathetic ritual: sodomy or at least the threat of it. An 18-year old freshman lodged a complaint about scumbags who were supposed to be his teammates sexually assaulting him, using threats and intimidation via use of a broomstick and "the use of demeaning, stereotyped epithets" on Rookie Night in August. Hmmmm….let’s take a wild guess what those might be.

This case reminds me of one from 2003 that involved Mepham High School on Long Island where three players were raped – there’s no other word for it – during a hazing at training camp in Pennsylvania. The story from McGill indicates that no sodomy took place, only the threat of it; the Mepham incident, however, was utterly vile, as there was sodomy involving broomsticks, pinecones and golf balls coated in Ben Gay. I hate rituals or situations that involve humilation of indivuals in a mob setting and as long as I draw a breath I’ll never, ever understand how shoving a broomstick up someone’s butt while the rest of the team stands around and cheers is supposed to make the victim feel like more a part of the team. Scum, the lot of them, that do those things.

Tagliabue, Wife Honored for PFLAG Work

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and his wife, Chandler, were honored by the New York chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays with the PFLAG 2005 Stay Close Individual Leadership Award. Tagliabue had given a sizable donation to PFLAG for the campaign. Tagliabue's son, Drew, is openly gay.

Cheerleader Quits Over Gay Taunts

A male cheerleader at a high school in Colorado quit the squad after being constantly teased about his sexuality, the Greeley Tribune Reported (tip to Towelroad).

Cole Graves, 17, who is also on the wrestling team, said the last straw was a team picture on the website of Platte Valley High School with “I’M GAY” under two male cheerleaders. "It's been going on for three or four months now," Graves told the Tribune. "Now it's posted on the picture on the Internet." The school said it took down the picture after being made aware of it and will investigate Graves’ charges.

Graves said he faced constant taunts and that last week "after I got out of wrestling practice, four guys were waiting on the corner to beat me up because they said I was gay. I'm not gay."

Graves said the experience has given him sympathy for others who are taunted. "I know I'm not gay," he said. "It's probably harder for a person who is gay and has to be called names. I feel so sorry for them."

I certainly have sympathy for what Graves went through and hope school officials get to the bottom of it. But it was troubling (though not surprising for a teen) for him to tell the Denver Post: “Everybody called me a fag, but I'm not gay. I'm just a regular guy.” We can hope he learns that gay and regular aren’t mutually exclusive.--Jim Buzinski 

Penn State Coach Is a Lesbian Hater

Penn State women’s basketball coach Rene Portland has always been one of the nastiest homophobes in sports, vowing to never have lesbians on her team. She is now being called on it by a former player.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights sent a letter on behalf of former Penn State basketball star Jennifer Harris to University President Graham Spanier, demanding that action be taken against Portland for her “decades-long policy of harassing players whom Coach Harris believed to be lesbians.” The complaint says that “despite Harris’ outstanding performance as a player during her two-year career at Penn State from 2003 to 2005, Coach Portland repeatedly questioned Harris about her sexual orientation, repeatedly threatened to kick Harris off the team if she found out Harris was a lesbian, and eventually told other players not to associate with Harris because she believed that Harris was gay. In 2005, Coach Portland abruptly told Harris to find somewhere else to play.”

“My departure from Penn State was very painful,” said Harris. “I struggled with whether I should just walk away and try to forget what happened. I finally realized that I could never put this incident behind me as long as other students were being subjected to the same sort of humiliation and discrimination I experienced from Coach Portland. In the end, I knew I had to speak out. Coach Portland very nearly destroyed not only my athletic career, but also my dream of completing my education and becoming a doctor. I do not want to see a single other student damaged in this way.” She is now enrolled James Madison University.

Harris' mother, Pearl Harris, told the Daily Collegian campus paper that in spite of the alleged harassment, her daughter is not a lesbian. “Because Coach Portland thought that I was gay, I was treated in a very demeaning manner,” said Jennifer Harris, even banning her from the 2004-2005 team awards banquet.

Portland is notorious for publicly stating in 1986 she would not have lesbians on her team ("I will not have it in my program," Portland told the Chicago Sun Times. "I bring it up and the kids are so relieved and the parents are so relieved."), yet Penn State has never disciplined her. A coach who said she did not want any Jews or blacks on her team would be fired in a day. “It is particularly troubling that such flagrant homophobia is permitted to thrive at a school like Penn State, which has such a strong public commitment to diversity, tolerance, and eliminating hatred, violence, prejudice, and discrimination from the University community,” said Helen Carroll, NCLR’s Sports Coordinator. Later in the year, Harris filed suit against Portland and Penn State. 

Swoopes Comes Out

Basketball star Sheryl Swoopes, a three-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time MVP of the WNBA, has come out publicly as a lesbian, making her the highest-profile team sport athlete to come out while playing. 

Swoopes, 34, has been hired as a spokeswoman for Olivia Cruises, which specializes in tour packages for lesbians. In connection with this, she is doing an extensive round of interviews with media outlets to talk about her decision to come out. 

Swoopes told ESPN the magazine for their issue hitting newsstands Wednesday that she is "tired of having to hide my feelings about the person I care about."   

Our Favorites from Picture This

Syndey Swans, Aussie Rules Football: Grand Champions
Ronaldo, Soccer: Tight in His Whites
Karam Gaber, Wrestling: Champion Pose
Andrew Baumgartner, Marcedes Lewis, Football: I Love You, Man
Ryk Neethling, Swimming: Golden Glow
Winners, Baseball: Wild White Sox
Adrian Christian Ghit, Bodybuilding: Fit as a Fiddle
Action, Wrestling: Up and Over
Ozzie Guillen, Baseball: Ozzie's World Series Kiss

November