Kev Maxen be first male ach a US men’s pro sports league to publicly e out as gay | CNN

Contents:

• GAY HISTORIAN ON WHY AND HOW HE PIL HIS LIST OF LGBTQ OLYMPIANS
• WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPENLY GAY OLYMPIANS

GAY HISTORIAN ON WHY AND HOW HE PIL HIS LIST OF LGBTQ OLYMPIANS

At least 186 publicly out gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, queer and nonbary athlet were Tokyo for the Summer Olympic Gam, more than triple the number who participated at the 2016 R Gam.

“Competg at the Olympics as an openly gay athlete is pretty amazg, ” Canadian swimmer Mark Thormeyer told Outsports.

WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS

Thormeyer was not out when he peted at the 2016 R Olympics and me out publicly as gay a 2020 say for Outsports. Elissa Alarie (Canada)#Brt Benn (Canada)#Kelly Brazier (New Zealand)Gayle Broughton (New Zealand)#Isadora Cello (Brazil) Lren Doyle (USA)#Mara Fravanti (Brazil)#Megan Jon (Bra)Alev Kelter (USA)Ghislae Landry (Canada)#Kaili Lan (Canada)#Celia Quansah (Bra)Kristen Thomas (USA)Ruby Tui (New Zealand)#Sharni Williams (Atralia)Portia Woodman (New Zealand). Athlet were reportedly found on the gay hookup app Grdr g the app’s “Explore” feature, which allows ers to teract wh others om far distanc.

”That’s pecially important at this year’s Gam, as the Internatnal Olympic Commtee (IOC) is hostg 11 natns where beg LGBTQ is crimalized, acrdg to Human Digny Tst: Yemen, the Uned Arab Emirat, Afghanistan, Bnei, Iran, Mrania, Nigeria, Qatar, Sdi Arabia, Somalia and some of those untri, beg LGBTQ is punishable by activists have prsured the IOC to ban such untri om petg the Gam the past, but has yet to e to un — spe siar bans, like 1964, when the IOC barred South Ai om petg due to apartheid, which lasted until medalist Tom Daley of Team Great Bra, left, wh dive partner Matty Lee, said after his recent w Tokyo, “I feel credibly proud to say that I am a gay man and also an Olympic champn. (Jean Catuffe/Getty Imag)And this year’s host untry, Japan, has zero out gay athlet (queer advot surmise that’s due to fear of backlash om fans and sponsors, not the New York Tim) and ranks poorly among LGBTQ rights globally, wh zero protectns agast employment and hog discrimatn. In fact, was announced last weekend that the IOC will be updatg s transgenr athlete policy, which will create new opportuni for trans Olympians around the, while queer visibily is at an all-time high, the ramifitns of beg outed on the public stage n often be trimental to those The good, the bad and the uglyHistorilly, disclosg someone’s sexual orientatn or nontradnal genr inty whout their nsent, and wh no regard to ramifitns, has been ed to weaponize and explo the LGBTQ was pecially sensatnalized the 1950s wh the “Lavenr Sre, ” a moral panic durg which the feral ernment began a massive purge of gays and lbians om ernment service.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

At s re, the purge was the ernment’s rponse to the growg pri and visibily of gays and lbians society, and ultimately ntributed to McCarthyism.

Proment activists, cludg San Francis Supervisor Harvey Milk, argued that outg gays and lbians — pecially public figur — would benef the muny by showg homophob that gay people are not viants or child molters or evil (mon trop believed by many at the time), but rather good, abidg cizens that serve equaly and fairns jt like everyone many disagreed, raisg issu of privacy, personal choice and what nstut mon good efforts to fight homophobia and expose hypocrisi society, the ia of outg public figur ronated well to the 1990s.

(Mart Berti/AFP via Getty Imag)“People might thk that beg gay is so excsive [today] that there are no ramifitns for dog somethg gossipy, that people are so out now and so accepted that nothg will happen, ” he explas. ”Michael Mto, a renowned lumnist who was also well known the ’90s for prsurg celebri (cludg Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen DeGener) to e out, says that 30 years ago wasn’t about g people’s liv, but rather an attempt to move the media’s taboo unrstandg of gay culture forward.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPENLY GAY OLYMPIANS

“Gossip lumns readily lved to public figur’ personal liv and also their problems whout permissn, but those same lumnists nsired gay the last taboo — virtually unspeakable, ” Mto tells Yahoo Life of that era. “Wrers like Signorile and myself were tryg to remove that taboo while also urgg celebs to e out at a time when many gays were dyg awful aths om AIDS, homophobia was risg and more visibily was sperately need. “Apps like Grdr are the new gay bars, and many public figur are riskg exposure by gog on them.

“In the 2018 Wter Olympics, the most endorsed athlete was an openly gay athlete, G Kenworthy, ” Cyd Zeigler, founr of Outsports, tells Yahoo Life. ”In fact, Zeigler says the majory of stori of young athlet g out to their teammat are overwhelmgly Hoffman, director of munitns at Athlete Ally, an anizatn whose missn is to end homophobia and transphobia sport, explas that while social media has certaly created trolls, has also built a platform for people like NFL player Carl Nassib and Canadian hockey player Le Prokop to e out on their own terms. The UK’s leadg LGBTQ magaze and newspaper at the time (Gay Tim, and Pk Paper, rpectively) mentned there were 11 of them.