Gay Pac-12 referee has been wh his partner for 29 years. Now he's g out to help others. - Outsports

Contents:

• A GAY REFEREE TRI TO FD HIS PLACE HOCKEY
• A GAY CANADIAN REFEREE ON WHY HOMOPHOBIA ALMOST DROVE HIM OUT OF PROFSNAL HOCKEY
• GAY PAC-12 REFEREE HAS BEEN WH HIS PARTNER FOR 29 YEARS. NOW HE'S G OUT TO HELP OTHERS.
• THIS GAY HOCKEY REFEREE LOV THE GAME. HOMOPHOBIA TELLS HIM THE GAME DON’T LOVE HIM BACK.
• I’M A GAY REFEREE AND YOU’D BE SURPRISED HOW MANY FOOTBALLERS ARE HOMOSEXUAL… SADLY THERE’S STILL PREJUDICE SPORT
• THIS GAY REFEREE JT WORKED AN AMERIN HOCKEY LEAGUE GAME, A FIRST FOR THE LEAGUE
• RABOW LAC: REF RYAN ATK ON BEG GAY FOOTBALL

A GAY REFEREE TRI TO FD HIS PLACE HOCKEY

Iwanek for The New York TimAndrea Barone nearly qu his job as a mor league hockey referee after years of hearg ach and players e anti-gay language durg Barone September. A gay man, Barone wears a pri sticker on his Iwanek for The New York TimApril 23, 2018This is a story about love and Barone was barely 18 months old when he first set out on the ice, his ty legs shakg and phg behd a chair along the ld surface. Late last summer, durg an terview at a Toronto ffeehoe, he was is sure of two thgs about himself: He is a hockey man, and he is a gay man.

A few man, workg any pacy, is known to be openly gay at hockey’s hight level.

And Major League Baseball have e out after retirement, the same nnot be said for any man formerly associated wh the has been tryg, often va, to rrect a culture that for s has ma ltle attempt to nceal s regular e of anti-gay sults me om ach, who would roll their ey when warned agast the e of homophobic slurs on the ice. It was, some way, the price of livg this world as a gay tolerated until last sprg, when an ECHL ach, whose team had blown a third-perd lead a playoff game, charged at him.

A GAY CANADIAN REFEREE ON WHY HOMOPHOBIA ALMOST DROVE HIM OUT OF PROFSNAL HOCKEY

In ont of three other refere, Barone said, the ach ed a graphic, expletive-laced anti-gay, known to the league and s personnel to be gay, was fur. Months earlier, while he was refereeg a game Alaska, an ECHL player directed an anti-gay slur at another player on the ice.

” Iwanek for The New York TimGay Men Hockey: A Short HistoryThere are few men hockey who seem to embody the sport que like Brian Burke, whose famo gffns toward a pryg scm of reporters as an executive roughly equaled his playg style as a llege and mor league scrapper the has spent nearly all his life hockey, but Burke, 62, the print of the Calgary Flam, has e to reprent somethg else to the 2009, when Burke was print and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, his son Brendan revealed himself to be gay. Though Brendan, then 20, held no posn wh the league, he immediately beme somethg rare: an openly gay man wh proximy to the threw an arm around his son, and the father beme a champn of gay rights sports, marchg forward by Brendan’s si until the moment unimagable grief found him. “He told me long after high school that was bee homophobic language ma him unfortable, ” Burke has fallen on Burke, more than anyone else hockey, to clean up a culture the sport that ma Brendan feel so unwele.

Burke said Flam players had approached him unsoliced, reportg that if there were ever any gay players on the team, they would be greeted Bent/Getty ImagOf the first openly gay man to play the N. ”In the five years sce Jason Colls beme the first openly gay man to play the N.

GAY PAC-12 REFEREE HAS BEEN WH HIS PARTNER FOR 29 YEARS. NOW HE'S G OUT TO HELP OTHERS.

A., and Michael Sam followed as the first openly gay man to be drafted by an N. Team, profsnal leagu have been tryg to ensure sports are a place where all feel a culture where anti-gay slurs have for s been ed sually as verbal digs, progrs has been rocky.

In 2011, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angel Lakers was fed $100, 000 for mutterg an anti-gay slur toward a referee. In 2015, Rajon Rondo of the Sacramento Kgs was spend one game for yellg the same word at the referee Bill Kennedy, who later revealed he was gay.

Baseball players have also been spend recent years for g homophobic Shaw spensn was a landmark measure by the N.

THIS GAY HOCKEY REFEREE LOV THE GAME. HOMOPHOBIA TELLS HIM THE GAME DON’T LOVE HIM BACK.

But to many the gay muny, the cisn undid much of the evolutn the league had ma wh Shaw’s the history of pro hockey, there are known to be very few gay male players. He felt so unwanted as a gay man hockey that he began to drk away the pa.

But as a Los Angel Kg wh a home Wt Hollywood, and later as a Ranger livg Chelsea, he ma gay iends. “But if I had a gay teammate, which I’m pretty sure I did at some pot — God, I n’t image what he was feelg like.

I’M A GAY REFEREE AND YOU’D BE SURPRISED HOW MANY FOOTBALLERS ARE HOMOSEXUAL… SADLY THERE’S STILL PREJUDICE SPORT

He may never be treated equally hockey, but at least he n fight to ensure that anti-gay language is nsired late sprg and summer, Barone took many months to ci his future.

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

The letter he wrote after the Utah episo was tled “Goodbye Hockey, ” so sure was he then that the sport had won, that he would wilt away to fd another he began to grasp that there is so much more to do if he sticks to this dream, so much more to achieve if he n earn his place as the first openly gay man the N. Steve Strimlg is breakg more ground as an out gay football referee, this time leadg the entire group of officials for the upstart USFL. “The articl I read about other gay people sports each say how much they helped others, ” he told me at the time.

RABOW LAC: REF RYAN ATK ON BEG GAY FOOTBALL

But Ser-Cook is breakg new ground as the first openly gay official to work a major natnal profsnal football league, last year the short-lived Alliance of Amerin Football and this year the XFL.

The head of officials for the Atlanta chapter of the Natnal Gay Flag Football League was there, heard me, and suggted I e help out on the weekends. “Sce I me out at 20, [beg gay] on the field has never been an issue, and has never been a terrent, ” he said.