5 active tennis players who have e out as gay or bisexual, ft. Daria Kasatka & Samantha Stosur

Contents:

• 5 ACTIVE TENNIS PLAYERS WHO HAVE E OUT AS GAY OR BISEXUAL, FT. DARIA KASATKA & SAMANTHA STOSUR
• ATHLETE’S GOAL IS TO REACH THE TOP AS AN OPENLY GAY PROFSNAL TENNIS PLAYER

5 ACTIVE TENNIS PLAYERS WHO HAVE E OUT AS GAY OR BISEXUAL, FT. DARIA KASATKA & SAMANTHA STOSUR

As a former men’s llegiate tennis player and openly gay member of my team, this qutn nagged at me as I attend the monumental first ever Pri event at the U.S. As a former llegiate tennis player and gay man, this event stck a particularly sensive chord for me. After all of the homophobia I have personally experienced sports, the panelists and the packed dience gave me so much hope for the future of cln sports.

The trailblazer for gay visibily on the ATP tour scribed himself durg the panel discsn as “an anx guy and an anx tennis player,” statg that his disfort wh his sexual orientatn throughout his life was a signifint ntributor to his anxiety. To me, the fact that Vahaly was even able to make on tour as a closeted gay man the 2000s mak him que an anomaly.

The days, top players Roger Ferer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have all publicly stated that they would wele an out gay man to the ATP. While we now celebrate Kg for her acplishments as a gay rights activist, the sacrific she had to make and terrors that she endured for wantg to be her thentic self after beg outed towards the end of her profsnal tennis reer – nearly 40 years ago – are unjtifiable.

ATHLETE’S GOAL IS TO REACH THE TOP AS AN OPENLY GAY PROFSNAL TENNIS PLAYER

Statistilly speakg, there mt be a man the top 100, 200, 500 or even 1,000 who is gay, right? Combe that wh gay and bisexual men reprentg a signifintly smaller portn of the populatn than heterosexual men, and the odds of havg one of makg through the ranks growg up and currently beg a profsnal tennis player are slim, no matter how welg players such as Ferer, Djokovic and Murray are 2019.

There uld be someone makg their way up the rankgs junrs right now, who hopefully will not be terred om tennis for beg a gay or bisexual man, who will see events such as the U.S Open Pri Event, and feel enuraged to pursue tennis profsnally. As Rippon highlighted, g out and beg labeled as “that gay athlete” is not easy to al wh. The most tellg sign of the lack of out gay men profsnal tennis is that the only player wearg any rabow apparel this summer was a straight guy who had to apologize for g gay slurs durg the Olympics.

Open starts s two-week n New York, I feel pelled to rehash this prsg statistic: There will once aga be no openly gay male players at one of the sport’s premier events.