Two athlet recently g out has highlighted the arth of openly gay players the world of U.S. men's profsnal sports, often dubbed "the last closet" for s lack of LGBTQ reprentatn.
Contents:
- KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
- WELE TO THE ‘GAY GAM,’ AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE OLYMPICS, WHERE ACTIVISM IS ENURAGED AND EVERYONE’S AN ATHLETE
- EACH OF AMERI’S BIG 5 SPORTS CURRENTLY HAS AN OUT GAY MAN THE PROS. THAT’S NEVER HAPPENED
- JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
- WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS
- JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY
KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach a US men’s profsnal sports league to e out as gay. * gays and sports *
To improve LGBTQ reprentatn profsnal sports, Schweighofer and Denison said, ach and lears youth sports should set a precent that homophobic language and discrimatn are unacceptable. Sometim the Gam have taken place untri where homosexualy is not wily accepted or where legislatn impacts LGBTQ rints. Denison’s rearch fds that most LGBTQ athlet leave their sports as young people, a parture driven by a culture of homophobic language and stereotyp.
Daley has said that while he’s accepted his sport of divg, he often pet agast divers om untri where beg gay is crimalized.
And Rapoe 2018 said that, as a kid, she “would have loved to have more rmatn” about what meant to be gay and why g homophobic slurs was wrong.
WELE TO THE ‘GAY GAM,’ AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE OLYMPICS, WHERE ACTIVISM IS ENURAGED AND EVERYONE’S AN ATHLETE
Tom Wadll, an athlete the 1968 Olympics, created the Gay Gam first held 1982 to celebrate LGBTQ cln. The Gay Gam are still held to this day wh the next round schled for 2022 Hong Kong. * gays and sports *
“Anytime you hear somebody say, ‘Oh, that’s gay, ’ or whatever, those thgs matter, ” said Rapoe, who didn’t e out to her teammat until llege. Homophobic slurs ntue to be prevalent sports – a 2020 study om Out on the Fields, which studi LGBTQ cln sports, found that more than 80% of gay participants had heard them ed while playg.
EACH OF AMERI’S BIG 5 SPORTS CURRENTLY HAS AN OUT GAY MAN THE PROS. THAT’S NEVER HAPPENED
Out Magaze on gay fns and sports. Read about the openly gay athlet who are breakg barriers profsnal sports. * gays and sports *
When ach and teammat e gay slurs equently, sends the msage that the language is harmls and OK to e – and solidifi the belief that all members of the team are heterosexual, Denison said. The same Out on the Fields study reported that over 81% of gay men unr 22 hid their sexualy to avoid rejectn by teammat or discrimatn by ach or officials, among other reasons.
But we n assume that many s, gay players will jt drop out of their sport.
That’s a problem for profsnal sports – wh few gay players sport, there will be even fewer who will make profsnally. “Boys and young men are tght to avoid anythg associated wh femy, most notably weakns, emotn, and homosexualy, ” said Schweighofer, whose work on LGBTQ cln sports has appeared the publitn of the Natnal Park Foundatn.
JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
For the first time, pro baseball, basketball, football, hockey and soccer has an out gay male player unr ntract. * gays and sports *
The same homophobic norms that affect men sports impact women and girls, too, and they origated the 19th century, Denison said. Homophobic stereotyp of women athlet, though no longer based on women’s abily to reproduce, persist today, Denison said. In June 2021, for example, Carl Nassib me out publicly as the first “out” gay male the NFL.
Then, Clay Davi me out publicly as the first out gay ele male cyclist Bra. As wh other gay male athlet before them recent years, both have been met wh public support.
WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS
Jaguars assistant Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach major Amerin men's pro sports to publicly e out as gay, tellg he ma the cisn bee he didn't want to hi who he is any longer. * gays and sports *
Formula One and football are hyper-mascule sports, often nsired to have macho and homophobic cultur. While recent data om the US shows that the acceptance of homosexualy society often remas divid by untry, regn and enomic velopment, overall there has been creasg acceptance most untri.
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY
Rearch the UK, for example, nsistently shows high levels of acceptance of homosexualy - wh only 16% of those surveyed 2018 believg same-sex relatnships were eher “always” or “mostly” wrong. Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach a US men’s profsnal sports league to e out as gay. Per Outsports, as of September 2022, there have only ever been 16 players NFL history to publicly e out as gay or bisexual.
Carl Nassib beme the first active NFL player league history to announce that he is gay 2021. Per Outsports, Maxen is the “first publicly out male ach a major Amerin men’s pro sports league, ” wh WNBA ach Curt Miller, who publicly me out to the media as gay 2015, also a publicly out male ach an Amerin profsnal sports league.
In 2015 Allums was ducted to the Natnal Gay and Lbian Sports Hall of Fame. Layshia Clarendon: As a “biracial, black, gay, female, genrqueer and Christian” WBNA basketball player for the Atlanta Dream, Layshia Clarendon has proven to be a formidable force both on and off the urt.