Jaguars strength ach is first male ach a major US-based pro league to e out as gay - The Boston Globe

Contents:

• NATHAN LANE: ROB WILLIAMS ‘PROTECTED ME’ FROM COMG OUT AS GAY ON ‘OPRAH’ 1996 BEE ‘HE WAS A SAT’
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS' KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE COACH TO COME OUT AS GAY MAJOR U.S. SPORTS
• DAWN MAJOR TERVIEWS J. MICHAEL WHE ABOUT WILLIAM GAY’S “FUGIV OF THE HEART”
• JAGUARS STRENGTH ACH IS FIRST MALE ACH A MAJOR US-BASED PRO LEAGUE TO E OUT AS GAY
• WILLIAMGAY
• WILLIAM GAY DI AT 70; WRER TIED TO TENNSEE

NATHAN LANE: ROB WILLIAMS ‘PROTECTED ME’ FROM COMG OUT AS GAY ON ‘OPRAH’ 1996 BEE ‘HE WAS A SAT’

"I have been gay my entire life, sce I was a child.

Though some of that live big ci n feel like half of the world is gay, 's a stark difference om many livg small towns. "I was takg my mom somewhere one day and she jt asked 'are you gay? "I was so sred of what actually meant to ll yourself gay so even the first man I dated, I still thought that afterwards I was gog to eventually meet a girl and get married bee that's what men did, " he said.

"But I was steadfast that like 'I'm gay and I probably shouldn't have been talg to someone that was 20 but I'm not gog to therapy, '" he said. Apparently Bex Banks was the last to fd out he was gay.

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

Though he was engaged gay sex, he didn't intify as gay. At age 21, his mom had enouugh and mand an explatn for the gay porn she was fdg on the puter and phone. "Once I had the nversatn wh my mom, I had no problem sayg I was gay, " he said.

DAWN MAJOR TERVIEWS J. MICHAEL WHE ABOUT WILLIAM GAY’S “FUGIV OF THE HEART”

"I was actually rehab when I was 16 years old and I thk a part of why I end up gog to rehab was the difficulty I had wh acceptg myself as a gay person, " Sharok said. For him, beg gay was a ath sentence beg that he grew up the 1990s durg the HIV/AIDS epimic and a fay member died of the disease.

"At that pot was kd of like an emotnal avalanche and I jt let all out and told her that I was gay. " Fran said that while they have grown to accept him, his fay still believ he shouldn't act on his homosexualy.

" At the time, Zevran was a gogo dancer performg gay clubs. Nathan Lane revealed on “Sunday Today” that Rob Williams once protected him om g out as gay agast his will on natnal televisn.

JAGUARS STRENGTH ACH IS FIRST MALE ACH A MAJOR US-BASED PRO LEAGUE TO E OUT AS GAY

The year was 1996 and Lane and Williams were on their prs tour for Mike Nichols’ “The Birdge, ” which they play a gay uple tryg to marry off their son to a nservative uple’s dghter.

Lane was nervo about dog an terview on “The Oprah Wey Show” as “The Birdge” was one of his first major film rol, and he did not want to e out publicly as gay at the time. “And I certaly wasn’t ready to go om table-to-table and tell them all I was gay. Of urse, Lane knew that playg a gay character the film would make discsg his sexualy real life “sort of unavoidable, ” but he still wasn’t ready to do so.

I’m not prepared to discs that I’m gay on natnal televisn. “Now you have to make a public statement about — I was terrified… It’s great that everyone now feels fortable but homophobia is alive and well and there are plenty of gay people who are still hidg.

WILLIAMGAY

" The 'gay guerilla' Another important figure this perd is Juli Eastman, Rob says.

" O'Brien pots to Eastman's Gay Guerilla, which a pre-ncert talk the poser pared to the language applied to Afghani and PLO guerrillas — people who are a fight.

WILLIAM GAY DI AT 70; WRER TIED TO TENNSEE

"And he said if he was lled upon to be one, he would want to be a gay guerrilla, " O'Brien says.