Gay U.S. lacrosse goalie wants to ‘normalize what mak different’ - Outsports

Contents:

• GAY LLEGE PLAYER SAYS LACROSSE NEEDS TO NORMALIZE G OUT
• HARVARD LACROSSE PLAYER TO TEAMMAT: ‘GUYS, I’M GAY’
• GAY ATHLET IN LACROSSE – WHAT’S THE PROBLEM HERE?
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• RE-LAX — MAKG LACROSSE A LEAR GAY SPORTS
• 12-YEAR-OLD TO GAY LACROSSE PLAYER: 'THE DAY I GOT THAT VIO WAS THE BT DAY OF MY LIFE'
• GAY U.S. LACROSSE GOALIE ME OUT TO ‘NORMALIZE WHAT MAK DIFFERENT’

GAY LLEGE PLAYER SAYS LACROSSE NEEDS TO NORMALIZE G OUT

When I was 15, I sobbed as I uttered the words “I’m gay” out loud for the first time.

I have known that I am gay sce I was 6. Although my ach was mostly accepted by our team, slight ments would be ma every now and then, as people would remark how our ach “didn’t seem gay. Overall, I look forward to a world when young girls and female athlet no longer have to utter the phrase “I’m gay” and experience the fear of beg rejected by their muny.

At USA Lacrosse, we celebrate that anyone om anywhere should be able to play lacrosse and ’ve piled and veloped rourc to help parents, players, and lears posively nnect wh the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer (LGBTQ+) muny lacrosse. Noah Knopf was received warmly after g out to his Harvard teammat, but says the sport has to al wh an graed homophobia. “I wanted to talk to you this morng to tell you that I’m gay.

HARVARD LACROSSE PLAYER TO TEAMMAT: ‘GUYS, I’M GAY’

“I uld tell people that I’m gay. When I was 19, I heard on a podst that the new ernor of Colorado was gay, and felt for a moment that the world might be changg.

Never had I properly acknowledged the fact that I was gay. While bshg my teeth a few nights before talkg to my parents, I realized that I had never even said the words “I’m gay” out loud before. “I’m gay, ” I whispered the mirror, and sed to myself.

I also felt the need to expla myself my first few nversatns about beg gay.

GAY ATHLET IN LACROSSE – WHAT’S THE PROBLEM HERE?

I’m gay. I had asked my iends and fay to keep our nversatns private bee, after wnsg the way that people lacrosse talk about beg gay, I wanted my teammat to hear the news om me.

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

I believed that after three years on the team, they would know me as Noah first and the gay kid send, but our locker room was not immune to the homophobic jok and sults that are the norm men’s lacrosse. Although my experience as a gay whe man is different om Ellison’s experience as a Black man, his words spired me.

But one factor I began to nsir was the way that people talk about beg gay our culture. For the first time throughout the fall, I started payg closer attentn to the jok, sults and ments about beg gay that had surround me sce I was a teenager. I first heard the word “faggot” locker rooms when I was fifth gra — before I unrstood what meant to be gay.

Even the progrsive circl where I me om, kids sually threw around homophobic jok and sults que routely, cludg those of who would have said we believed was pletely OK to be gay. I’m embarrassed to say that I too ma homophobic jok and lghed at homophobic sults. I believe that a siar gnive dissonance plays a role the wispread homophobic speech that pervas the sport of lacrosse.

RE-LAX — MAKG LACROSSE A LEAR GAY SPORTS

I am sure that a few people our sport do ed hate gay people and e hateful language to exprs their feelgs. But still, homophobic language flows eely practilly every llege lacrosse locker room om stunts at some of the world’s most ele universi. Homophobic jok still richet through the group chats of high school lacrosse players across Ameri.

So many young people our sport still throw around homophobic sentiments sually and thoughtlsly, my past self among them, as if there is some kd of divi between their beliefs and their words, as if is ed tly possible to “not mean like that. When I began to nsir g out, I thought I wanted to be the gay kid who “gets . ” I thought I wanted to be the gay kid who was ol wh my iends llg each other “fags” and referrg to thgs they didn’t like as gay.

They don’t get that the homophobic culture of lacrosse matters. From the way that my iends and I joked growg up, I learned that beg gay was equivalent to beg annoyg and unmanly.

12-YEAR-OLD TO GAY LACROSSE PLAYER: 'THE DAY I GOT THAT VIO WAS THE BT DAY OF MY LIFE'

It took me a long time to unlearn the homophobic ias that I did not know I had nsumed. After years of nfn and silence; after years of uncertaty and shame; after a long journey through challeng I did not know I uld face — after 22 years of life, this was how the Harvard men’s lacrosse team felt about me beg gay.

I wrote to say that you n be openly gay, bisexual, non-bary, transgenr or queer — you n be whoever is that you are — and you n play the sport of lacrosse. Our sport has a problem wh homophobia and I thk ’s time that we addrs .

GAY U.S. LACROSSE GOALIE ME OUT TO ‘NORMALIZE WHAT MAK DIFFERENT’

If you are a person lacrosse who homophobic language, you should nsir the fact that those words n hurt ep and plited ways. And you should also nsir the possibily that the way you talk about beg gay uld be hurtg the people you love. There are more gay people lacrosse than you realize.

I remember one of my iends tellg me ma him sick to his stomach to thk about the way he had talked before he knew I was gay.

I had said homophobic thgs as well, and I am an actual gay person. I hope we n end our culture of homophobia.