Le Prokop, Predators prospect, be NHL's first openly gay player

Contents:

• EACH OF AMERI’S BIG 5 SPORTS CURRENTLY HAS AN OUT GAY MAN THE PROS. THAT’S NEVER HAPPENED
• NORTH AMERI’S FOUR BIGGT PRO SPORTS LEAGU HAVE BEEN AROUND A BED 398 YEARS. THEY’VE HAD TWO OPENLY GAY ACTIVE PLAYERS
• 30 MOMENTS OF PRI: ROBBIE ROGERS’ SEND MLS CUP MA A STATEMENT FOR GAY ATHLET
• WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS
• COLL MART, MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER PLAYER, SAYS, 'I'M GAY'
• MLS PLAYER ANNOUNC HE IS GAY AND WANTS OTHER ATHLET TO E OUT TOO
• NASHVILLE PREDATORS PROSPECT LE PROKOP OUT, BE FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER NHL HISTORY
• 'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW
• THERE ARE VAR PERSONAL REASONS MORE GAY MALE PRO ATHLET HAVE NOT E OUT. HERE ARE 7 OF THEM
• MOSW GAY MAP
• MOSW GAY BARS
• MOSW GAY DANCE CLUBS & PARTI

EACH OF AMERI’S BIG 5 SPORTS CURRENTLY HAS AN OUT GAY MAN THE PROS. THAT’S NEVER HAPPENED

Four athlet om the Uned Stat jo Canadian Prokop breakg down barriers for gay and bisexual athlet big-time sports. In addn, there have been out gay athlet like Andrew Goldste playg other sports like lacrosse. Prokop lled the ont office of the Nashville Predators to let them know he’s gay, then wh their support he me out to the world.

The Las Vegas Rairs fensive end is now jt one of two openly gay active players the history of the four biggt North Amerin sports leagu (the Natnal Football League, Natnal Basketball Associatn, Major League Baseball and the Natnal Hockey League). It’s not that gay men aren’t playg profsnal sports, experts say.

Homophobic language is still a regular feature of playg on a boys’ sports team the US and abroad, Denison’s rearch shows – one of his studi found that more than half of the ice hockey and gby players he terviewed said they’d ed slurs. Regular exposure to slurs or stereotyp eventually rerc among players that their succs as an athlete is tied to an ia of masculy that exclus gay men, he said. Denison scribed what he lls a “cycle of excln” that begs when a boy hears ach or olr players e homophobic language and observ a “posive rponse” to that behavr – maybe they lgh at each other, or the ach don’t challenge them, he said.

NORTH AMERI’S FOUR BIGGT PRO SPORTS LEAGU HAVE BEEN AROUND A BED 398 YEARS. THEY’VE HAD TWO OPENLY GAY ACTIVE PLAYERS

That sends the msage that homophobic language is harmls and OK to e – and cements the assumptn that all members of the team are heterosexual. Gay players on those teams may also e the language as a shield to hi their sexualy and nform wh their team, Denison said.

In many s, though, gay players will jt drop out of the sport.

30 MOMENTS OF PRI: ROBBIE ROGERS’ SEND MLS CUP MA A STATEMENT FOR GAY ATHLET

“We often fd that male ach ntue to e homophobic language and teach nformy to this tough mascule athlete inty that don’t really exist, ” he said.

WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS

As a child, before Davis unrstood what meant to be LGBTQ, he was already absorbg the norms beg set around him durg practice – that “beg gay those walls was unsafe, that [he] would be danger. And by the time he was an NFL locker room, he said he didn’t hear homophobic slurs beg ed, but sexist on.

COLL MART, MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER PLAYER, SAYS, 'I'M GAY'

Insert someone who’s gay … and you fely want to have domn over this gay person, and you actually don’t want them your space. Quali players necsary for succs football – domance, aggrsn and, ocsnally, vlence – are often associated wh homophobia and sexism, too. So whether or not a male athlete actually holds sexist or homophobic views, featur of both are often baked to his sport.

He beme the first openly gay player an NBA game when he was signed to a 10-game ntract wh the Brooklyn Nets Febary 2014. Almost 50 years earlier, there was Glenn Burke, a buddg Los Angel Dodgers star whose reer was cut short by homophobia the 1970s, argu Andrew Maraniss, an thor and special projects ordator wh Vanrbilt Universy Athletics, his book on Burke. When his ach found out he was gay and offered him a sizable sum to marry a woman, he refed.

MLS PLAYER ANNOUNC HE IS GAY AND WANTS OTHER ATHLET TO E OUT TOO

The next season, Burke was trad to the Oakland A’s, where a ach lled him a homophobic slur and said he would “ntamate” the team, Maraniss wrote. “He was a phenomenal athlete at the time when majory of straight sports fans the untry assumed that there’s no way there uld even be a gay player the game, let alone the most popular player on his team, ” Maraniss said.

Will ach have the backbone to speak out agast homophobia when they see ? Denison said that progrs mt start at the youth level by curbg the e of gay slurs by ach and players and emphasizg a narrow fn of masculy. There may be no acplishment by an out gay man sports more overlooked and unrvalued than the MLS Cup Robbie Rogers won wh the L.

NASHVILLE PREDATORS PROSPECT LE PROKOP OUT, BE FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER NHL HISTORY

Yet was his tle wh the Galaxy 2014 that stands out bee he did after g out publicly as gay, alg wh a strg of juri and the Galaxy tradg the then-MLS-leadg srer to acquire Rogers om the Chigo Fire. This MLS Cup champnship also pped off an credible 2014 for gay men Amerin sports: Jason Colls and Derrick Gordon had played their first gam sce g out publicly, and Michael Sam had been drafted by the St. While some people pot to Sam’s sputtered NFL reer as evince of problems gay men face major pro sports, Rogers beg weled onto the Galaxy and ultimately brgg a tle to Los Angel sends a clearer msage about the acceptance that unrli even the hight levels of men’s pro sports.

Barrett-O’Keefe emphasized a siar need to create safer spac wh the game, while also potg to enuragg stori om players like Coll Mart, who, 2018, beme the send-ever active MLS player to e out as gay.

And so how n we show up as an MLS muny to show that there is space for gay male athlet and gay male fans the men's game? When Nashville Predators prospect Le Prokop me out this week, was the first time an active player unr ntract to an NHL team had ever publicly acknowledged they were gay. Overnight, Prokop's announcement doubled the number of out gay athlet currently playg the untry's four major men's sports — football, basketball, baseball and hockey.

'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY

They also highlighted the arth of openly gay players the hypermascule world of U. Though many retired former players have e out, is more unual for male profsnal athlet to say they are gay while still playg.

Gay male athlet face cultural barriers Part of the reason for the lack of out gay players men's profsnal sports uld be that there are jt fewer of them the game.

THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

Rory Magrath, a rearcher at Solent Universy England, has suggted that 's possible gay men are unrreprented profsnal sports. "Gay men are a fe rource, so they n't exist great numbers every quarter, " Magrath told "Gay men are overreprented some areas, and as a nsequence are gog to be unrreprented sports.

THERE ARE VAR PERSONAL REASONS MORE GAY MALE PRO ATHLET HAVE NOT E OUT. HERE ARE 7 OF THEM

That uld be due to the mascule culture at the center of the major sports, experts say, creatg an environment that is ls welg to gay athlet. Magrath helped thor a study that found that male athlet who me out as gay while still playg sports were largely met wh acceptance by their teammat.

MOSW GAY MAP

Robbie Rogers ma history 2013 when he took the field for the Los Angel Galaxy after as the first openly gay player profsnal U. NBA player Jason Colls, who me out 2013 while he was still playg the league, later told NPR " went great" when he scribed the perd after announcg he was gay.

After Michael Sam beme the first openly gay athlete to be drafted to the NFL 2014, then-Miami Dolphs safety Don Jon tweeted "horrible, " rultg penalti and a spensn. David Kopay, a former NFL nng back who me out 1975, was unable to land a profsnal achg job after he announced publicly that he was gay.

MOSW GAY BARS

There are key differenc the cultur of men's and women's athletics While few active players the major men's sports leagu have e out, many female profsnal athlet have said publicly that they're gay, om U.

Coll Mart, a soccer player for Mnota Uned, announced on Twter Friday that he is gay, beg the only openly gay male player any of the major North Amerin sports leagu. It's an important night for me — I'll be announcg that I am an openly gay player Major League Soccer, " the player an exclive terview wh NBC News, Mart said his teammat already knew that he was gay before he me out publicly. ”In an terview wh NBC News, Hudson Taylor, the executive director of Athlete Ally, a group that aims to end the homophobia sports, said Mart jos a select group of male profsnal athlet who me out publicly.

“We n still unt the number of current or former openly gay athlet on pretty much two hands, ” he said.

MOSW GAY DANCE CLUBS & PARTI

“Sport teach a very narrow fn of masculy and femy, " Taylor said, "and if you don’t nform to that very narrow fn, you’re gonna be met wh a culture that a lot of homophobic, sexist language, and as a rult is not perceived to be a very acceptg space. "We know there’s a dropoff on the llegiate level and the profsnal level” of gay players, he are g out at younger ag now, he said, but many current players are most likely still closeted. Santiago Sosa spend 3 match by MLS for g homophobic slur durg a match.