Jags' Maxen is first male Amerin pro sports ach to e out as gay - ESPN

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THEY LIVED A 'DOUBLE LIFE' FOR S. NOW, THE GAY ELRS ARE TELLG THEIR STORI.

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He was rponsible for preparg discharge and reassignment paperwork, and sometim he would have to dishonorably discharge men for beg gay. “At that time I realized that I was gay, and was jt difficult to know that people were beg discharged for the same thg that I was my life.

”“What bothered me the most was havg to talk to the guys that were beg discharged, and they were not a good state of wellns anyway, bee at that time, was illegal or nsired mental problems to be gay, ” he Cunngham, 82, and Richard Prtt, 78, have llectively spent 115 years the closet. Godss Magora Kennedy, who participated the Stonewall uprisg, and Pl Barby, who ran for Congrs as an openly gay man 1996 and 1998.

”Livg a 'double life'Cunngham said he realized he was gay as a teenager, but he didn’t know the word “gay” at the time — he jt knew he was different. Begng the late 1960s, many stat crimalized homosexualy through sodomy laws. The Amerin Psychiatric Associatn also classified homosexualy as a mental disorr the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs until 1973, when that classifitn was replaced wh “sexual orientatn disturbance.

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

” Homosexualy was pletely removed om the manual 1987, but many stat still had sodomy laws on their books until 2003, when the Supreme Court led such laws unnstutnal. You'd have a lbian iend wh you, or they would have a gay man on their arm or somethg, and was a way of hidg. ”Cunngham and Prtt met the mid-'90s while workg for a b pany, but they still didn’t e out bee, acrdg to Cunngham, “If you were gay, you were not promoted.

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