Is Baseball Ready for a Gay Jackie Robson? - In The Tim

Contents:

• YOUNG ATHLET ARE WHY THERE WILL NEVER BE A "GAY JACKIE ROBSON" - FROM 'FAIR PLAY'
• IS MICHAEL SAM THE GAY JACKIE ROBSON?
• WHY WE’LL NEVER HAVE A ‘GAY JACKIE ROBSON’
• THE JACKIE ROBSON OF GAY RIGHTS
• IS BASEBALL READY FOR A GAY JACKIE ROBSON?
• THERE WILL NEVER BE A "GAY JACKIE ROBSON"

YOUNG ATHLET ARE WHY THERE WILL NEVER BE A "GAY JACKIE ROBSON" - FROM 'FAIR PLAY'

Most of the mastream attentn spent on the topic of LGBTQ cln sports centers around when we will have a star openly gay active athlete one of the four major male profsnal sports leagu. Women’s Natnal Team, or that Robbie Rogers played four seasons wh the LA Galaxy the MLS after g out, or Jason Colls’ cisn to announce he’s gay at the tail end of his profsnal basketball reer.

If you are lookg for a story of gridiron perseverance, read about Miami nng back TJ Callan, who played two seasons wh the Hurrin spe endurg csant homophobic tnts om teammat and ach.

In optg to tell his story, Callan says he wants to be part of the solutn, and open the ey of ach and admistrators about the impact a homophobic environment n have on an athlete. It is evable we will see more openly gay profsnal athlet.

IS MICHAEL SAM THE GAY JACKIE ROBSON?

Perhaps we will see out gay fensive tackle Stt Frantz on an NFL roster this fall, provid the season starts on time.

From Chapter 2 - Young Athlet Are Why There Will Never Be A "Gay Jackie Robson". For years people have asked about when we would see the "gay Jackie Robson. While many see the fight for marriage equaly the rearview mirror, many policians—mostly Republins—still aim to strip gay and trans people and same-sex upl of their rights.

It is still legal twenty-ne stat—the majory of Ameri—to fire someone for beg gay, as sexual orientatn has not been granted feral civil rights protectn. Gay people n vote. Gay people aren't relegated to a particular seat on a b.

WHY WE’LL NEVER HAVE A ‘GAY JACKIE ROBSON’

Out gay people have been playg sports wh straight people for years. Instead, the clost thg we've had to a "gay Jackie Robson" were people like Johnson, Sims, and other LGBT athlet and ach at the high school and llege level who me out publicly and to their teams the eighti, neti, and early 2000s.

The people, the trench of small-town muni and lower-profile teams, llectively helped pave the way not jt for future gay athlet, but their public profil—both lolly and natnally—shifted the nversatn and bolstered legal advancements cludg marriage equaly.

THE JACKIE ROBSON OF GAY RIGHTS

The lacrosse goalie me out publicly 2005 while at Dartmouth and was the first out gay man drafted by a pro sports league when the Boston Cannons selected him the Major League Lacrosse draft later that year.

While he was known tennis circl to be gay, he didn't publicly acknowledge until he was arrted for solicg a mor; he went on to distance himself om his homosexualy, llg an "illns" for which he was beg treated. Hardly the actns of a "gay Jackie Robson. It's the same dynamic wh gay athlet.

A hundred years om now people won't remember Corey Johnson or Brian Sims for beg gay athlet. None are the "gay Jackie Robson. I’ve been hearg the ntext of an tensifyg dmbeat: that the “gay Jackie Robson” is jt weeks or months should retire the phrase now.

IS BASEBALL READY FOR A GAY JACKIE ROBSON?

It’s a flawed a few other observers have noted, don’t do jtice to Robson’s experience and to the many differenc between the challeng he nonted and those facg the first man or men to acknowledge beg gay while still active one of Ameri’s four major profsnal sports (baseball, football, basketball and hockey) don’t do any favors to the gay trailblazer.

Branch Rickey, the team print who hired him, wanted and picked someone who might not buckle, as most men surely would, unr such prsure and such a first openly gay player a major sport uld stead be an accintal and unwillg hero, hled to history by a random photo, a talkative boyiend, some other untend exposure or the fear of . Its headle: “Hopg Our ‘Gay Jackie Robson’ Isn’t the ‘Gee Michael of Sports. ’ ” Wilson/The New York TimRobson was openly black, if you will, before he played the big leagu, and what he end baseball was trailblazer still to e will most likely have his place the big leagu before he’s openly gay, and the ontier he’ll hab is not one of accs — there have been and are gay players the four major sports — but of ndor.

THERE WILL NEVER BE A "GAY JACKIE ROBSON"

A month earlier, before he played the Super Bowl, the San Francis 49er Chris Culliver said, “We don’t got no gay people on the team, they gotta get up out of here if they do. ”The first openly gay player football, baseball, basketball or hockey will be tted, no qutn. Wh an extra measure of fame will e naysayg and he’ll potentially have a huge impact, topplg certa stubborn stereotyp by “smashg through the closet door the most mascule of our pastim, ” as Brian Ellner, a proment gay rights advote, said to burn and promise are noteworthy enough that whoever tak them on needn’t be amed terms of anybody there’s one Robson analogy I’ll a few emotnal scen, “42” emphasiz his special meang to black children, who see him a future they weren’t sure they had.

The first lebacker or center fielr to say “I’m gay” will be a siar agent of hope, assurg more than a few sred boys that glory and honty are both possible, even our untry’s sacred thedrals of Nocera is off today. Today, athlet like Jackie Robson are celebrated as "breakg the lor barrier" sports, although that narrative often requir sanizg, simplifyg or rewrg a more plex, nuanced and ntradictory remas though a cultural vtment celebratg sports' "firsts, " whether that be Robson as the first Black MLB player, the first openly gay active player the NBA, the first nonbary U. Long before the world knew of Michael Sam, football watchers had wonred what would happen to the untry’s most popular sports league wh the arrival of s first openly gay “Gay Jackie Robson” label floated and around nversatns on the subject, sparkg preemptive rejectns of the hypothetil analogy om LGBT advot, die-hard sports fans, and historians yet, spe those prottatns, the term kept poppg up -- first wh NBA center Jason Colls, who announced he was gay last year before signg wh the Brooklyn Nets (the same NYC borough that Robson played for) and then wh Sam, an NFL-bound SEC Defensive Player of the Year and first-team All Amerin, who posned himself as another barrier-breaker om the moment he me NFL was gog to get a gay football player.

He was the first openly gay NFL even though Sam has achieved an extraordary tone, a number of challeng still rema -- both terms of fg his own legacy, and makg the NFL a fully clive enty, much the same way Robson ma Major League Baseball a fully tegrated challenge: makg the may have sported No. By ntrast, Sam is g durg the gay rights movement’s heyday, after a handful of ex-NFL players have already e out. Gay people n -- and already have -- played the big leagu.