By Dan Woog Sports fans love trivia. But even the most obssive jock-lover might not know the answer to this query: "Who is the only openly gay male
Contents:
- WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS
- PLAYG SOFTBALL PROV YOU'RE GAY
- GAY LLEGE SOFTBALL PLAYER NAVIGAT AN ACCEPTG TEAM AND SILENT FAY
- THREE STRAIGHTS AND YOU’RE OUT GAY SOFTBALL LEAGUE
- GAY BALL
- 13 INDY MEN ARE HEAD TO GAY SOFTBALL WORLD SERI. ONE SAYS 'THIS TEAM SAVED MY LIFE'
WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS
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. * percentage of gay softball players *
“It is one of those ltle touchstone thgs, ” said Rosalyn Bugg, an official wh the Greater Los Angel Softball Assn., found as a slow-pch league for gays.
” By then, the game had bee a central part of the culture, said Pat Griff, thor of “Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lbians and Homophobia Sport. ” “It’s the bone marrow of women’s sports, ” she said, “the whole issue that sports will turn you gay or sports have a disproportnate number of lbians.
” This dynamic leads to negative recg — llege ach tryg to fluence prospects by whisperg that rival programs are pervasively gay — and ncerns among parents. When Nashville Predators prospect Le Prokop me out this week, was the first time an active player unr ntract to an NHL team had ever publicly acknowledged they were gay. Overnight, Prokop's announcement doubled the number of out gay athlet currently playg the untry's four major men's sports — football, basketball, baseball and hockey.
PLAYG SOFTBALL PROV YOU'RE GAY
* percentage of gay softball players *
Though many retired former players have e out, is more unual for male profsnal athlet to say they are gay while still playg.
Gay male athlet face cultural barriers Part of the reason for the lack of out gay players men's profsnal sports uld be that there are jt fewer of them the game. Rory Magrath, a rearcher at Solent Universy England, has suggted that 's possible gay men are unrreprented profsnal sports.
"Gay men are a fe rource, so they n't exist great numbers every quarter, " Magrath told "Gay men are overreprented some areas, and as a nsequence are gog to be unrreprented sports. That uld be due to the mascule culture at the center of the major sports, experts say, creatg an environment that is ls welg to gay athlet. Magrath helped thor a study that found that male athlet who me out as gay while still playg sports were largely met wh acceptance by their teammat.
GAY LLEGE SOFTBALL PLAYER NAVIGAT AN ACCEPTG TEAM AND SILENT FAY
A urt se Seattle challengg the oute of the 2008 Gay Softball World Seri is forcg the world of anized gay sports to exame barriers to participatn. * percentage of gay softball players *
Robbie Rogers ma history 2013 when he took the field for the Los Angel Galaxy after as the first openly gay player profsnal U. NBA player Jason Colls, who me out 2013 while he was still playg the league, later told NPR " went great" when he scribed the perd after announcg he was gay.
After Michael Sam beme the first openly gay athlete to be drafted to the NFL 2014, then-Miami Dolphs safety Don Jon tweeted "horrible, " rultg penalti and a spensn. David Kopay, a former NFL nng back who me out 1975, was unable to land a profsnal achg job after he announced publicly that he was gay. There are key differenc the cultur of men's and women's athletics While few active players the major men's sports leagu have e out, many female profsnal athlet have said publicly that they're gay, om U.
THREE STRAIGHTS AND YOU’RE OUT GAY SOFTBALL LEAGUE
Bee gay or straight, the implitn is that real women -- feme, socially appropriate women -- wouldn’t be ught dog anythg as butch as playg softball. 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.
GAY BALL
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. “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.
13 INDY MEN ARE HEAD TO GAY SOFTBALL WORLD SERI. ONE SAYS 'THIS TEAM SAVED MY LIFE'
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. 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.
That’s a problem for profsnal sports – wh few gay players sport, there will be even fewer who will make profsnally.