Harvard Men's Lacrosse's Noah Knopf to Teammat: 'Guys, I'm Gay' | USA Lacrosse Magaze

Contents:

• STRAIGHT LAX BROS GREET GAY TEAMMATE'S G OUT EXACTLY HOW THEY SHOULD
• GAY ATHLET IN LACROSSE – WHAT’S THE PROBLEM HERE?
• GAY HIGH SCHOOL LACROSSE PLAYER FOUND STRENGTH OM PRO PLAYER’S ALLYSHIP
• HARVARD LACROSSE PLAYER TO TEAMMAT: ‘GUYS, I’M GAY’
• GAY U.S. LACROSSE GOALIE ME OUT TO ‘NORMALIZE WHAT MAK DIFFERENT’
• WH ONE CLICK OF FACEBOOK’S “POST” BUTTON, THIS GAY LLEGE LAX BRO SAW HIS TEAM’S LOVE
• 12-YEAR-OLD TO GAY LACROSSE PLAYER: 'THE DAY I GOT THAT VIO WAS THE BT DAY OF MY LIFE'
• SC FEATURED STORY ON YOUNG, GAY LACROSSE PLAYER RONAT WH VIEWERS
• A GAY GIRL’S GUI TO THE 2023 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP
• JAGUARS STRENGTH COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

STRAIGHT LAX BROS GREET GAY TEAMMATE'S G OUT EXACTLY HOW THEY SHOULD

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. This weekend also happened to be Pri weekend New York, and beg a gay lacrosse player felt like a two-for-one al. I am a 27-year-old gay man who has acplished a lot his sport.

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

Although I was 26 when I me out, I realized I was gay when I was 12 years old. I still remember the day I realized I was gay, bee of how terrified I was at that time. My teammat said very siar thgs that my fay had said, but they did somethg that ma me feel like nothg had changed for them: They immediately ripped on me for everythg om beg gay to livg England.

That moment this weekend was a powerful display that two D1 men's lacrosse players uld be there to support their gay teammate. It is my hope that a 12-year-old stgglg wh the fact they're gay across this and giv them the nfince to own who they are.

The All-Amerin goalie had stggled wh his sexualy sce he was 7, and like so many gay and transgenr kids, had ntemplated suici. '"Earlier this year, another young lacrosse player realized that he was gay.

GAY HIGH SCHOOL LACROSSE PLAYER FOUND STRENGTH OM PRO PLAYER’S ALLYSHIP

"There's nothg wrong wh beg gay, " Braen rpond, "bee I am gay.

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

Playg the celt of ccibl, the Syrace Carrier Dome, before 25, 000 fans, Dartmouth College's sophomore lacrosse goalie somehow has plucked Michael Sprger's pot-blank shot out of the air and starts sprtg up the curly open left sile. "As Goldste would say later, "I gus tak a gay goalie to have enough balls to sre the NCAA tournament. But early his sophomore year at Milton Amy, his Massachetts hometown, he told a iend, was liberatg, even thrillg, but Goldste's secret stayed between the two until July 2003, two months after he sred that groundbreakg goal at Syrace.

He worried that on the team's first road trip that the "unlucky guys who had to be my roommat would pla about sleepg the same room as the homo. " He wonred if anybody would s next to him on the team, however, several teammat approached him to apologize for homophobic language and off-lor-jok om the past.

A handful of notable profsnal team-sport athlet had e out after their reers end and, to be sure, there were a number of openly gay athlet dividual sports at the Divisn I, II and III levels. Still, the 5-foot-10, 170-pound goalie was, the sports work nclud after rearchg the ntext, the most acplished male, team-sport athlete North Ameri to be openly gay durg his playg that year he was drafted by the Boston Canons of Major League Lacrosse and eventually played for the Long Island a before Amerin soccer player Robbie Rogers played for the Los Angel Galaxy of Major League Soccer, prr to Jason Colls steppg on the urt for the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, before Michael Sam, a Missouri fensive end, me out advance of the 2014 NFL draft, there was Andrew Goldste. "Andrew was the first openly gay male athlete to be drafted by a profsnal sports league the Uned Stat, " said Cyd Zeigler, -founr of "And then he beme the first to play a profsnal sports league.

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

"In 2005, the gay muny didn't want to talk about sports and the sports muny didn't want to talk about gay people. You n no longer say that gay men all jt want to listen to show tun.

WH ONE CLICK OF FACEBOOK’S “POST” BUTTON, THIS GAY LLEGE LAX BRO SAW HIS TEAM’S LOVE

"The ESPN profile won a televisn journalism award om the Gay & Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn. "In 2013 Goldste was enshred the gural class of Natnal Gay and Lbian Sports Hall of Fame, joed by, among others, Marta Navratilova, Billie Jean Kg and Greg GoldsteToday, at 32, Goldste seems fortable his own sk.

"I would notice that a lot of people would make, like, homosexual jok, " he explas. And then I realized that I was gay. "They all say the same thg -- are you gay?

"So we go to Braen's room and ask him, 'Are you gay? One boy at his school told Braen he was gog to hell bee beg gay wasn't mentned the Bible. "Stt had found the statistics on-le: The suici rate for gay teens is thought to be four tim the natnal average.

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

"Makg a nnectnFive weeks after Braen me out, on March 16, the Lang found Andrew remembered seeg a televisn piece on a gay lacrosse player and wh a few mut she had Googled the ESPN feature. On the day before the 2015 Divisn I lacrosse champnship game between Denver and Maryland at Lln Fancial Field Philalphia, a few away on the mp of Pennsylvania Universy, several hundred people, gay lacrosse players and their alli, gathered for The Courage Game. This week, I was talkg at a school wh an emergg group of terted lacrosse players, and I brought up the ia of recg openly gay/lbian athlet om other sports, and om wh the muny, to help grow the game.

But at the end of the day, all of the exclnary practic are makg me ask the qutn: are “lax bros” homophobic? Homosexualy is still not somethg that is talked about very openly our society.

However, wh all that said, and wh all this growth, is the marketg of lacrosse broad enough to appeal to the Gay/Lbian muny? So why do people still thk ’s okay to say the same thg about homosexuals? Now, I n also see a uple of people who know me personally sayg, “Chewy isn’t gay… so why do he even re?!

SC FEATURED STORY ON YOUNG, GAY LACROSSE PLAYER RONAT WH VIEWERS

For more stori on gay lacrosse players, check out.

For a high school lacrosse player Colorado g out as gay, the words of one of the top pro lacrosse players ma him feel wele and validated the sport. For Anton Corral, then a 15-year-old high school player Denver facg homophobia as he stggled wh his inty, Rabil’s words ma him feel accepted. Corral showed his own growth as a young gay athlete tryg to make a difference when he told his g out story June 2019, wrg, “I knew I would never receive rpect or pri om others around me if I never gave them the chance to unrstand.

Noah Knopf was received warmly after g out to his Harvard teammat, but says the sport has to al wh an graed homophobia.

A GAY GIRL’S GUI TO THE 2023 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP

“I wanted to talk to you this morng to tell you that 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.

JAGUARS STRENGTH COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS 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.

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. 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.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

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.

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.