Gay Ballet: Two Men Defyg Tradns the Dance World

Contents:

• WWE REFEREE SHAWN BENT OUT AS GAY ON NATNAL COMG OUT DAY
• VIO: PREMIER LEAGUE REFEREE OUT AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN
• VIO: PREMIER LEAGUE REFEREE OUT AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN
• THIS GAY REFEREE JT WORKED AN AMERIN HOCKEY LEAGUE GAME, A FIRST FOR THE LEAGUE
• HOW ONE OF BRAZIL’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SOCCER REFERE CHANGED THE GAME
• HOW A GROUP OF GAY MALE BALLET DANCERS IS RETHKG MASCULY

WWE REFEREE SHAWN BENT OUT AS GAY ON NATNAL COMG OUT DAY

They've crossed paths on the Phoenix karaoke circu before, but only recently did a iend tell him Kennedy's name and what he do for a most refere at the big league level, Kennedy don't seek the spotlight, but found him last December, when he publicly clared his sexual inty as a gay man a few days after the league spend Rajon Rondo for llg Kennedy a "motherfuckg faggot.

" Though NBA staff, fellow officials and numero players and ach have known for years that Kennedy is gay, the announcement stantly ma him a public figure.

13, tellg Yahoo Sports, "I am proud to be an NBA referee, and I am proud to be a gay man. He tells Kennedy he was the bt man at his gay 's weddg. And a crowd whose energy was wang before the microphone found s way to Kennedy has been drawn to the man who, jt an hour ago, was visible to referee Bill Kennedy scrib the challeng he faced on and off the urt as a gay manAfter Rajon Rondo berated NBA referee Bill Kennedy wh an anti-gay slur durg a game last season, Kennedy publicly revealed that he was gay.

VIO: PREMIER LEAGUE REFEREE OUT AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN

Kennedy talks about the fears he lived wh as a closeted gay man and the reactn he received om the York/AP PhotoFOR A MOMENT that stands as a watershed event Kennedy's life -- and arguably the history of gay people profsnal sports -- the cint at the Palace of Auburn Hills is shroud mystery. He knew that an ter mor -- or even a news story -- on a gay NBA referee might not be a fireable offense, but the acpanyg chatter was exactly the kd of attentn he wanted to avoid. "Pearl had Kennedy wa outsi the nference room while he went to brief the powers that be on his new fdg: Billy Kennedy was not terted appropriately touchg the female her; Kennedy was a gay the NBA uld fd no report on the Kennedy vtigatn s offic or outsi fil, the league says the matter was put to rt.

"The Letter led to The Talk, " Kennedy says, addg that he's certa his mother knew he was gay before he did.

After The Talk, he began to venture to gay spac his early 20s -- cludg Charlie's, a gay untry bar a few blocks om where he went to gra school. "Like many gay men, Kennedy existed somewhere between the closet and daylight durg his early adult years. Though he wasn't out Ref World, there was a tac "don't ask, don't tell" policy between Kennedy and his iends, who operated unr the assumptn that he is gay.

VIO: PREMIER LEAGUE REFEREE OUT AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN

And so Kennedy, forced to disclose his sexual inty to the league office New York to save his reer, proceed to spend the next 15 years gog about the bs of the bifurted life of a gay referee.

He might not have clared himself openly gay, but when did refere publicly clare anythg about themselv? "Back Phoenix, Kennedy was a member of an extend circle of young, gay male profsnals who socialized, played sports and traveled on weekend getaways together. Yet as central as Kennedy's gay iends were to his life and he to theirs, he often went missg.

"Billy was the origal ghoster, " says Mike Fornelli, a close iend of Kennedy's who owns BS Wt, a popular gay club Sttsdale, Arizona, that Kennedy has equented and sung karaoke at for years. A dozen men joyoly pose for a gay newspaper Hoton that was verg the event, but one of the subjects is obscured.

THIS GAY REFEREE JT WORKED AN AMERIN HOCKEY LEAGUE GAME, A FIRST FOR THE LEAGUE

Friends om his officiatg life unanimoly say they eher knew or spected Kennedy is gay -- and didn't re. All the while, gay iends found his attempt to manage his persona entertag, given that peggg Kennedy as gay might seem obv to anyone wh even a margally tuned gaydar.

"Billy, you don't want people to know you're gay, " Fornelli would quip, "but your hands are on your hips all the fuckg time. "When disgraced former NBA referee Tim Donaghy effectively outed Kennedy 2010 by tellg a rad host Boston, "It's no secret on [the NBA officiatg] staff that Bill Kennedy is a homosexual, " Kennedy simultaneoly beme more relaxed about his sexual inty around people he knew yet more sktish about the possibily of beg public at a time when social media was explodg.

"Still, Kennedy embraced life as an openly gay man the digal age. Off nights NBA ci were spent at gay karaoke or untry bars, maybe a steam hoe or flirtg on Grdr. (Kennedy's profile photo is what's known gay parlance as a "headls torso, " om the waist to the neck.

HOW ONE OF BRAZIL’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SOCCER REFERE CHANGED THE GAME

The Natnal Basketball Refere Associatn's general unsel, Lee Seham, also got touch to discs wh Kennedy a more nuanced pot: Players who have yelled anti-gay ephets at officials, as Kobe Bryant did at Adams 2011, were typilly h wh a fe ($100, 000 Bryant's se) but no spensn. Adams isn't gay, therefore the "faggot" hurled his directn is regard as offensive and excable, but not hate speech. Usg "faggot" as a general schoolyard tnt agast a heterosexual official isn't the same offense as attackg a gay official wh "faggot, " but treatg Rondo's behavr as hate speech would sentially out this summer whether they were aware Kennedy is gay, a number of players and ach characterized Kennedy's sexual inty as an open secret.

A source close to the league's vtigatn says that Rondo was asked by Elizabeth Marger, the NBA's vice print and assistant general unsel who led the vtigatn, whether he knew Kennedy was gay when the cint occurred. Rondo replied that he didn' on, then, was on Kennedy to disclose his te inty, lt the cint be treated as jt another se of an NBA player hurlg anti-gay language as a proxy for asshole. "We had every step of the way durg the vtigatn said, 'Billy is gay.

It is generally known that he is gay, and we are askg that this se not be treated the ntext of the prr cints volvg the e of parable language. It mt be treated differently bee he is gay, '" Lee Seham says. Fernando Meda/NBAE/Getty ImagTHE NIGHT IN 2002 that Kennedy me out to Twardoski, he told Twardoski that were anythg ever to happen to him -- a fatal accint or unnatural ath -- he wanted Twardoski to tell everyone attendance at the funeral the te Billy Kennedy story, one featurg a gay man who ma to the NBA as a referee.

HOW A GROUP OF GAY MALE BALLET DANCERS IS RETHKG MASCULY

Look at that one, " he says about a 6-foot-4 queen wh a long, flowg blue drs, a bare cht and black platform all the r of passage Kennedy practiced as a semi-out gay man over the past two s, marchg a gay pri para had always prented a gree of difficulty too high. "For gay men like Kennedy, even 2016, the fear of nsequence is real.

Whatever signals one might glean om pollg numbers, prtige televisn or a popular Facebook post circulatg among his peers, Kennedy has grown up a world where a gay man don't know how people are gog to react when they learn he sleeps wh men.

Now, unls another player or official mak a siar announcement sometime soon, Kennedy will be the only openly gay man to appear on an NBA urt this October when the league tips off s is a man who fears the unknown. Supreme Court sanctned gay marriage natnally. Now virtually every NBA team performs at least token outreach to lbians and gays s market, and the league has ma pro-gay msagg a pot of emphasis.