The Fotten History of the First Openly Gay Man to Play Major League Baseball | Them

Contents:

• THE FOTTEN HISTORY OF THE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO PLAY MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• CELEBRATG LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: THE ONLY MLB TEAM WH PLAYERS WHO HAVE E OUT AS GAY
• HISTORY’S FIRST GAY COUPLETHEY LIVED, DIED AND WERE BURIED TOGETHER AS EARLY AS 2400 B.C EGYPTKAMNA KIRTI·FOLLOWPUBLISHED LSONS OM HISTORY·3 M READ·AUG 13, 2020--5SHARENIANKHKHUM AND KHNUMHOTEPSOURCE: PUBLIC DOMAWHEN EGYPTOLOGISTS DISVERED THE TOMB AT SAQQARA, EGYPT 1964, THEY WERE SURPRISED. THIS WAS THE FIRST AND ONLY TOMB THE NECROPOLIS WHERE A SAME-SEX UPLE WAS BURIED TOGETHER.WH MOST OF THE HISTORY GETTG LOST TRANSLATN, EGYPTOLOGISTS HAVE EXTRAPOLATED OM THE EVINCE THEIR TOMB THAT KHNUMHOTEP AND NIANKHKHNUM ARE HISTORY’S FIRST DOCUMENTED GAY UPL. THE CLAIM OF A FIRST RERD SAME-SEX UPLE HAS MET NSIRABLE BATE ACROSS AMIANS.HIEROGLYPHS ADORNED ACROSS THE TOMB PICT THEM AS HOLDG HANDS, FACE TO FACE WH THEIR NOS TOUCHG, EMBRACG A WAY THAT PICTS A MARRIED UPLE.THE TOMB
• THE OLST KNOWN GAY MAN?
• JAGUARS’ KEV MAXEN IS FIRST MALE ACH TO E OUT AS GAY US MEN’S PRO SPORTS

THE FOTTEN HISTORY OF THE FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO PLAY MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

This list of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) firsts by year not pneerg LGBT enavors anized chronologilly. Openly LGBT people beg visible society affects societal attus toward homosexualy, bisexualy, and the transgenr muny on a wir level. One monly ced example is Michael McConnell and Jack Baker, the first openly gay uple to apply for a marriage license 1971.

Another is Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person to be elected to polil office California, beg the most visible LGBT polician the world the 1970s, after s of ristance to LGBT people by mastream culture. In 1974, The Advote wrote letters to Major League Baseball teams askg to terview players “livg a gay liftyle.

” The requt “was meant to jolt the baseball tablishment to acknowledgg that there were ed gay men playg the game, ” Andrew Maraniss wr his new book, Sgled Out: The Te Story of Glenn Burke. Along wh beg the first openly gay man to have played the MLB — he me out 1982, after leavg the league — Burke and his teammate Dty Baker are often creded wh ventg the high five.

JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

Yet his acplishments were largely fotten or tentnally obscured, whether by a homophobic society that had no e for a gay athlete or by a baseball anchise that wanted to claim cred for the thgs Burke had done for the team whout acknowledgg the prence of an out gay man their Sgled Out, Maraniss do his bt to pture the tragedy and weight of Burke’s story. He signed a Mor League ntract wh the Los Angel Dodgers his first uple of years the mors, Burke didn’t yet know that he was gay, jt that he was “different” om his teammat.

Eventually, Burke unrstood himself to be gay, which me as a relief. He also spent the off-season prowlg the gay bars of the Castro San Francis, across the Bay om his hometown of Maraniss explas his book, was unheard of for profsnal male athlet to be gay at that time. The other players were so far removed om gay culture, and so unspectg that one of their teammat might possibly be gay, that many of them simply missed the ample evince of Burke’s inty.

The fact that he didn’t fulfill the prevailg effemate stereotype of a gay man helped him rema illegible to his peers. His teammat were fur and, after he was gone, the team traer nfirmed Burke had been trad bee Campanis and manager Tommy Losarda didn’t want any gay men the Oakland, Burke stggled to fd his groove after an jury. Followg one 1979 game at the Oakland Colism when A’s fans were yellg homophobic slurs at Burke the outfield, he chased down the heckler the nurse and grabbed him around the neck.

CELEBRATG LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: THE ONLY MLB TEAM WH PLAYERS WHO HAVE E OUT AS GAY

Unbeknownst to Burke, however, manager Billy Mart was vilently homophobic and sent him down to the mors so he wouldn’t “ntamate” the rt of the team. He would never aga play a major league game, nor would he hold a regular beg forced out of the A’s, Burke remaed his Bay Area home and relished the opportuny to live an openly gay life whout worryg about whether would get back to the prs or jeopardize his baseball reer.

But he had a ntrollg and emotnally abive partner who spent most of the money Burke had ma— a partner who had also prsured Burke for years to e out publicly as gay, even when might have st him his partner, Michael Smh, fally nvced Burke to e out a 1982 article the magaze Insi Sports. In 2021, there still has never been a sgle openly gay, active player the major leagu.

The homophobia of men’s sports is well-documented, spe the fact that many anchis now hold Pri Nights and clare themselv LGBTQ+ alli.

HISTORY’S FIRST GAY COUPLETHEY LIVED, DIED AND WERE BURIED TOGETHER AS EARLY AS 2400 B.C EGYPTKAMNA KIRTI·FOLLOWPUBLISHED LSONS OM HISTORY·3 M READ·AUG 13, 2020--5SHARENIANKHKHUM AND KHNUMHOTEPSOURCE: PUBLIC DOMAWHEN EGYPTOLOGISTS DISVERED THE TOMB AT SAQQARA, EGYPT 1964, THEY WERE SURPRISED. THIS WAS THE FIRST AND ONLY TOMB THE NECROPOLIS WHERE A SAME-SEX UPLE WAS BURIED TOGETHER.WH MOST OF THE HISTORY GETTG LOST TRANSLATN, EGYPTOLOGISTS HAVE EXTRAPOLATED OM THE EVINCE THEIR TOMB THAT KHNUMHOTEP AND NIANKHKHNUM ARE HISTORY’S FIRST DOCUMENTED GAY UPL. THE CLAIM OF A FIRST RERD SAME-SEX UPLE HAS MET NSIRABLE BATE ACROSS AMIANS.HIEROGLYPHS ADORNED ACROSS THE TOMB PICT THEM AS HOLDG HANDS, FACE TO FACE WH THEIR NOS TOUCHG, EMBRACG A WAY THAT PICTS A MARRIED UPLE.THE TOMB

Burke’s story is an example of the ways which sports have failed gay athlet. Burke was a proud Black, gay man, so the -group language and cultural referenc he ed sound awkward om the voice of an thor who shar neher inty wh his subject. Even the gay and Black history portns of the text, which are fold for ntext about the world that Burke habed, read like the Spark Not versn of gay and Black history— the basics you uld get om readg a Wikipedia page.

Sgled Out also spends very ltle time lookg to the iendship between Burke and Dodgers manager Losarda’s gay son, Tommy Losarda, Jr. The elr Losarda’s homophobic treatment of Burke had larger implitns: the longtime Dodgers manager nied that his own son was gay, even after he died of AIDS, and remaed silent about HIV, the vis that killed both Burke and Losarda, Jr. Hopefully, one day, Burke’s story will be told by a wrer who is Black and/or gay, who n brg necsary texture and perspective to his important story.

-- Jaguars assistant strength and ndng ach Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach major Amerin men's profsnal sports to publicly e out as gay, tellg he ma the cisn bee he didn't want to hi who he is any longer and to possibly spire others siar 's a cisn and move that drew praise and support om owner Shad Khan, who was a vol and emphatic supporter of a cy ordance that expand protectns on the grounds of sexual orientatn, genr inty and genr exprsn. Outsi lebacker Carl Nassib beme the first active NFL player to e out as gay and to play a game Associated Prs ntributed to this report. Today, as the Los Angel Dodgers prepare to play the World Seri agast the Tampa Bay Rays, -founr Jim Buzski remds that the Dodgers anchise is a part of LGBTQ sports history as havg the only two MLB players who ever were public about beg gay.

THE OLST KNOWN GAY MAN?

Dodgers have had Major League Baseball’s only 2 openly gay players. In the history of Major League Baseball, there have been only two players who have e out as gay: Glenn Burke and Billy Bean.

Burke, while never publicly out wh the media while playg, did nothg to hi the fact to his teammat that he was gay.

Not a “Hey world, I’m gay” way, but the sense that his teammat knew as did the management of the Los Angel Dodgers, Burke’s first team. ” A memorable moment “Out” occurs when is relled that the Dodgers — tryg to stifle mors that a popular player was gay — offered Burke $75, 000 to get married.

JAGUARS’ KEV MAXEN IS FIRST MALE ACH TO E OUT AS GAY US MEN’S PRO SPORTS

The Dodgers and their manager, Tom Lasorda, prented a versn of themselv as a clean-cut, All-Amerin team and a flamboyantly gay player uld not be tolerated, pecially one who hung out wh Lasorda’s gay son. (“Spunky’), himself a gay man and the son of the team’s manager, Tommy Lasorda.