North Ameri's four biggt pro sports leagu have had only 2 openly gay active players | CNN

Contents:

• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS' KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE COACH TO COME OUT AS GAY MAJOR U.S. SPORTS
• NFL ACH BE FIRST MALE ACH MAJOR U.S. MEN’S PRO SPORTS TO E OUT AS GAY
• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• 9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY
• WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS
• NORTH AMERI’S FOUR BIGGT PRO SPORTS LEAGU HAVE BEEN AROUND A BED 398 YEARS. THEY’VE HAD TWO OPENLY GAY ACTIVE PLAYERS
• FOR GAY ATHLET, WHAT AFTER G OUT?
• THE RELATNSHIP BETWEEN ‘COMG OUT’ AS LBIAN, GAY, OR BISEXUAL AND EXPERIENC OF HOMOPHOBIC BEHAVUR YOUTH TEAM SPORTS
• JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN RECEIV OVERWHELMG SUPPORT AFTER G OUT AS GAY

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS' KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE COACH TO COME OUT AS GAY MAJOR U.S. SPORTS

Atralian A-League soccer star Josh Cavallo me out as gay an October vio posted to his social media, beg hailed as the first current male top-flight profsnal soccer player to publicly do so. The 28-year-old Natnal Football League player and Rairs fensive leman ma history when he me out as gay on Instagram durg Pri Month, beg the first veteran NFL player to e out as gay while signed to a regular-season ntract. The Bachelor star and former football player (who was signed by the San Diego Chargers as an undrafted ee agent and was on the practice squad of the Oakland Rairs and the Philalphia Eagl) me out as gay April, sayg he had fally e to terms wh his sexualy and the "next step all of this was sort of lettg people know.

NFL ACH BE FIRST MALE ACH MAJOR U.S. MEN’S PRO SPORTS TO E OUT AS GAY

Corey Walsh, the 27-year-old pro BMX rir and Vans spokperson, said he isn't normally the type of person to "let people " on his personal life, but felt was important to e out as gay a March Instagram post bee "there are a lot of people still stgglg wh the same suatns" and he "jt wanted to let people know that they are not alone. Champn long track speedskater Conor McDermott-Mostowy never hid beg gay om his fay, iends, and fellow athlet, but he also wasn't one to rate his locker wh rabow Pri flags eher. For a variety of reasons, n be extremely hard for profsnal athlet to e out as LGBTQ+ their personal one, sports are largely domated by straight cis men who have been notorly homophobic and transphobic acrdg to numero stori om LGBTQ+ athlet.

"Now is a good time for me bee the Commonwealth Gam is a month's time, and there's gog to be a lot of people watchg that, and there are so many untri the Commonwealth where beg gay is illegal. The 25-year-old athlete and former Richmond Flyg Squirrels player revealed to his fans and followers that while he is no longer playg for the team, which is part of the San Francis Giants system, he is thankful for the time he had and isn't givg up on his love of baseball, pecially as an out, gay man.

JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

The Asie Olympic gold medalist and gby player me out as a trans man an Augt vio for the Bgham Cup's Internatnal Summ Tacklg Transphobia and Homophobia Sport event.

-- Jaguars assistant strength and ndng ach Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach major Amerin men's profsnal sports to publicly e out as gay, tellg he ma the cisn bee he didn't want to hi who he is any longer and to possibly spire others siar suatns.It's a cisn and move that drew praise and support om owner Shad Khan, who was a vol and emphatic supporter of a cy ordance that expand protectns on the grounds of sexual orientatn, genr inty and genr exprsn."I don't want to feel like I have to thk about anymore," Maxen said the piece published Thursday afternoon. -- Jaguars assistant strength and ndng ach Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach major Amerin men's profsnal sports to publicly e out as gay, tellg he ma the cisn bee he didn't want to hi who he is any longer and to possibly spire others siar 's a cisn and move that drew praise and support om owner Shad Khan, who was a vol and emphatic supporter of a cy ordance that expand protectns on the grounds of sexual orientatn, genr inty and genr exprsn. Former NBA center Jason Colls, who me out 2013 and beme the first openly gay athlete any of the four major US sports leagu, wrote that he was “very proud” of Nassib.

9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY

Per Outsports, Maxen is the “first publicly out male ach a major Amerin men’s pro sports league, ” wh WNBA ach Curt Miller, who publicly me out to the media as gay 2015, also a publicly out male ach an Amerin profsnal sports league. At both the llegiate and profsnal level, sports have historilly been the last ontier for LGBT acceptance, and homophobia still ns rampant locker rooms and on playg fields across the Uned Stat and Europe. Gay athlet and anti-bullyg activists like Ben Cohen, former pro English gby player, are fightg to change the game and create more clive spac for LGBT players everywhere.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

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. 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.

"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. 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. 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. 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).

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY

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. 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. 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.

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.

“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. Defensive prospect Michael Sam had e out before the NFL draft and been selected by the looked as if we as a society were ready to take a quick leap om havg no out gay athlet major team sports to nsirg ordary.

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

'"It's important to remember that profsnal athlet didn't grow up the more acceptg environment we live today; chanc are, g out, they have to overe a lifetime of exposure to anti-gay attus.

Many teammat and opponents knew that Burke and Smh were gay -- Burke particular suffered for at the hands of A's manager Billy Mart the late 1970s and early '80s, while Smh was accepted by Hall of Fame ach Vce Lombardi a earlier. If athlet their 20s or 30s -- a generatn that grew up wh gay-straight allianc their schools -- aren't ready to e out publicly for the benef of the media or the LGBT muny, younger athlet see far ls to lose.

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

However, ltle is known about whether lbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) young people experience discrimatory behavur team sports bee of their sexualy and whether g out to sport teammat is associated wh homophobic behavur. MethodThis study ed a sample (N = 1173; 15–21 years; llected 2014–2015) om six untri (Uned Stat, Uned Kgdom, Canada, Atralia, New Zealand, Ireland) to exame whether LGB youth who ‘e out’ to teammat experience homophobic behavur. Multivariate logistic regrsn mols adjtg for age, genr, untry and ntact sport participatn found that participants who ‘me out’ as beg LGB to sports teammat were signifintly more likely to report beg a target of homophobic behavur.

FOR GAY ATHLET, WHAT AFTER G OUT?

LGB experienc of homophobic behavur appear mon overall this sample, but are greater those who have e out to ImplitnSports admistrators and ernments need to velop programs and enforce polici that create safe sports environments where LGB youth n participate whout enunterg homophobic behavur.

Acrdgly, playg a team sport uld be of particular benef to lbian, gay, and bisexual youth (LGB) who experience disproportnally high rat of prsn, suicidaly, and self-harm (Blais et al., 2015; Kann et al., 2018; Birkett et al., 2015; Lourie & Needham, 2016; Mereish & Poteat, 2015).

However, recent populatn studi, such as large-sle longudal rearch (N ≈ 99, 000) Canadian high schools, have found that LGB youth are nsistently ls likely to report playg a team sport than heterosexual youth (Doull et al., 2018) most recent wave of data the Canadian study shows that the largt dispary is between gay and heterosexual mal, wh gay mal reportg active participatn team sports at half the rate of heterosexual peers (32. 1% of femal reported playg a team sport durg the last 12 months pared wh 40% of gay/bisexual mal and 38% of lbian/bisexual are multiple reasons why a young person may choose to play, or not to play, team sports.

THE RELATNSHIP BETWEEN ‘COMG OUT’ AS LBIAN, GAY, OR BISEXUAL AND EXPERIENC OF HOMOPHOBIC BEHAVUR YOUTH TEAM SPORTS

Lerature reviews and ernment reports the Uned Kgdom (UK), Canada and Atralia suggt that homophobia and homophobic behavur are likely to be a primary participatn terrent (Brackenridge et al., 2007; Government of Brish Columbia, 2017; Greenspan et al., 2019a; Sport and Recreatn Victoria, 2017; Sport England, 2018; UK Government, 2015).

A recent UK Parliamentary Inquiry (Digal, Culture, Media, Culture, and Sport Commtee, (UK), 2017) also lled for actn by sports erng bodi to end homophobia and homophobic behavur bee had “ser ncerns over the effects of low participatn among LGB youth on their mental and physil health and well-beg … It appears that young players and athlet sometim feel (due to fear of beg the target of discrimatn) that they have to make the active choice between eher g out or ntug to participate their chosen sport” (p. 9) Parliamentarians highlighted the need for quantative rearch examg the extent to which LGB youth experience homophobic behavur team sports and the impacts of that behavur. Although there is a pcy of published rearch wh LGB youth, is reasonable to suggt that homophobic behavur would be a factor lower participatn rat light of quantative evince that homophobic behavur team sports has a range of negative impacts on LGB young adults (Pistella et al., 2020) cludg terrg them om participatn (Bac et al., 2018).

JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN RECEIV OVERWHELMG SUPPORT AFTER G OUT AS GAY

Quantative studi (Herek, 2007, 2015; Herek & McLemore, 2013) non-sport environments have also found that LGB youth avoid environments, or hi their sexualy, settgs where homophobic behavur is mon and where those that e out (reveal their sexualy) as LGB are likely to be the target of homophobic behavur. For example, LGB youth are more likely to avoid school if they perceive homophobic attus and behavur to be mon and if they have been the target of this behavur (Black et al., 2012).

Rearch has scribed homophobic attus and behavur to be mon youth team sports (Brackenridge et al., 2007; Greenspan et al., 2019a; Morrow & Gill, 2003; O’Brien et al., 2013; Osborne & Wagner, 2007; Southall et al., 2011). Rearch Canadian high-schools has also found that 89% of LGB stunts who entered locker rooms or school sport environments reported hearg homophobic language (e. For example, a recent study of Amerin youth (N = 71; 13–18 years) reported half of LGB participants had experienced sexualy-based harassment or asslts the last year while playg sports and scribed “immense feelgs of disfort, and mimal ally ship or effective terventn om athletic staff even the face of blatant homophobic and transphobic ments (om others)” (Greenspan et al., 2019a, p.