Beg Out: Gay UCLA ach Kirk Walker helps people e out sports - Outsports

Contents:

• CELEBRATG LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: D1 ACH KIRK WALKER OUT AS GAY
• BEG OUT: GAY SOFTBALL ACH KIRK WALKER A BEAN FOR THOSE WANTG TO E OUT SPORTS
• OPENLY GAY COLLEGE COACH MAK A LOW-PROFILE ROLE MOL
• GAY ACH FOUND HIS SOLACE, REER THROWG A SOFTBALL
• GAY LLEGE SOFTBALL PLAYER NAVIGAT AN ACCEPTG TEAM AND SILENT FAY
• PLAYG SOFTBALL PROV YOU'RE GAY
• GAY MCNUTT NAMED HEAD SOFTBALL COACH
• GAY MUNICH
• HERRENSNA AM HPTBAHNHOFMUNICHMENUHOTELS · LUXURYHOTELS · MID-RANGE + BUDGETON TODAYBARSDANCE CLUBSCISE CLUBSSNASMASSAGECAFéSSERVICTOURSCY GUIGAY MAPHERRENSNA AM HPTBAHNHOF
• SUMMER THE CY: A GAY MUNICH WEEKEND TRIP
• VANUVER SOFTBALL ACH GAY DI AT 75
• CANDICE WIGGS SAYS 98 PERCENT OF WNBA IS GAY, CLAIMS SHE WAS BULLIED FOR BEG STRAIGHT

CELEBRATG LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: D1 ACH KIRK WALKER OUT AS GAY

The UCLA assistant softball ach was the first openly gay NCAA Divisn I male ach to e out on Outsports, 2007, while he was head softball ach at Oregon State.

BEG OUT: GAY SOFTBALL ACH KIRK WALKER A BEAN FOR THOSE WANTG TO E OUT SPORTS

I reached out to Nick Lee, an openly gay former Vassar tennis player, and told him of the award and he asked others the LGBTQ sports muny what Walker has meant to them. He and rowg ach Charley Sullivan were the only two openly gay male ach I knew of when I began recg members to ECA. Smh is diversy and cln lead for Internatnal Gay Rugby and chief diversy officer for the World Barbarians Foundatn gby club, “for unaffiliated players and other gby harlots om around the world.

OPENLY GAY COLLEGE COACH MAK A LOW-PROFILE ROLE MOL

Here’s how -founr Jim Buzski told his g out story Augt 2011, as one of our 100 most important moments gay sports history. Kirk Walker out as only openly gay male Divisn 1 ach. Their ach was gay.

GAY ACH FOUND HIS SOLACE, REER THROWG A SOFTBALL

Sce his story went public, Walker has heard om many other gay and lbian ach, who have found an spiratn his story.

We thk Walker is still the only openly gay male Divisn 1 ach. Walker, an assistant softball ach at UCLA, was himself a one-time closeted gay man sports until he me out on 2005 and did a profile Outsports 2007. Not bee of homophobia, but bee we are and will always be a mory sports even when fully accepted and valued sports.

Her supporters acced nservativ of tryg to damage her chanc by whisperg that she was gay. None of this particularly surprised a sport that has wrtled wh the issue — If you play, you’re probably gay —for s. “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.

GAY LLEGE SOFTBALL PLAYER NAVIGAT AN ACCEPTG TEAM AND SILENT FAY

Several ach Southern California timate that more than 50% of the players were gay at the time. “I’ve never seen so many gay people my life, ” said Drabecki, who now ach at Burbank High.

” 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. ” Gay women uld feel accepted at the ballpark.

“Softball beg a phemism for homosexual is pretty funny, ” said Bugg, the recreatnal league official. “But not so funny to a lot of the women I play wh who are not homosexual.

PLAYG SOFTBALL PROV YOU'RE GAY

” As straight players grew more worried about beg labeled gay, the gam took on a different look.

“My straight teammat enuraged me almost more than my gay teammat to speak out, ” she said. The immediate ditn is that they’re gay. ” “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.

GAY MCNUTT NAMED HEAD SOFTBALL COACH

Over the past few years, has bee more and more mon for lbian and gay ach to clu the nam of spo and partners their bs. Pat GriffWhen Griff thored her 1998 book Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lbians and Homophobia Sport, her terview subjects were anonymo.

GAY MUNICH

After was published, Walker adms he wasn’t happy beg referred to as the gay ach, preferrg to put his succs sport the foreont. Negative recg — the long-time practice of some ach bad-mouthg lbian and gay ach — has creased.

HERRENSNA AM HPTBAHNHOFMUNICHMENUHOTELS · LUXURYHOTELS · MID-RANGE + BUDGETON TODAYBARSDANCE CLUBSCISE CLUBSSNASMASSAGECAFéSSERVICTOURSCY GUIGAY MAPHERRENSNA AM HPTBAHNHOF

Twenty years after steppg to his tth, Miller is still the only out gay man who is a head ach Divisn I women’s or men’s basketball, the NBA, the WNBA and the NBA G League.

He embrac beg a trailblazer and a role mol that you n be a gay man and still thrive the sport of basketball or any team sport. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTOpenly Gay College Coach Mak a Low-Profile Role Nash for The New York TimMay 21, 2010TUALATIN, Ore.

SUMMER THE CY: A GAY MUNICH WEEKEND TRIP

And tth be told, Walker, the longtime Oregon State softball ach, has always been so absorbed by his work that he has not given much thought to beg possibly the only publicly gay man achg a Divisn I then the phone will rg. ’ ”To be gay 2010 is somethg met wh a shg of the shoulrs many plac. Sport, though, is one of the last quarters where many gay people are not fortable enough to step out — particularly men.

VANUVER SOFTBALL ACH GAY DI AT 75

“But Kirk’s value is puttg a name to the ncept that ‘Oh, we know there’s gay ach and gay players. When Sherri Murrell was hired as the women’s basketball ach at Portland State, The Portland Tribune rried a story of her hirg on the same page as a feature on Nash for The New York Tim“I go, ‘Wow, I’m the right place, ’ ” said Murrell, who is thought to be the only publicly gay Divisn I women’s basketball ach. ”Those pangs dissipated for Walker over the years as he told iends, fay and -workers that he was gay.

Bee they had to register wh a public agency, Walker did not want his players to learn om anyone Walker stood before his team then, fumblg for words, he was surprised that none of his players had any qutns about his beg gay. Walker said that his beg gay had never been brought up durg recg and that he did not thk had ever ed him to lose a rec. ”Walker, 45, has found himself straddlg generatns the gay muny.

“Beg gay is beg more acceptable our generatn. It’s not like him beg gay off the field has any effect on on the field.

CANDICE WIGGS SAYS 98 PERCENT OF WNBA IS GAY, CLAIMS SHE WAS BULLIED FOR BEG STRAIGHT

While he earned a gree klogy, he ntued to rerce a wall between himself and was not until he passed through “avoidance mo” and began to e to terms wh his sexualy his middle-to-late 20s that he began to realize was not the wall or his ditn to achg that kept him om beg terted , the Oregon State pcher, shyly not that would not be any great revelatn to learn that Walker is gay, and Walker said, “It’s more evint than was seven or eight years ago. ”A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn D, Page 5 of the New York edn wh the headle: Openly Gay College Coach Mak a Low-Profile Role Mol. It wasn’t until I was a sophomore llege that I was able to really e to terms wh why I was actg this way.

My olr sister played softball at the Mount, and I earned a manager posn by my sophomore year.

Along the way, I me to grips wh what had been my secret — beg gay. I didn’t want the fact that I am gay to affect the chanc of landg my dream job for somethg as mcule as my sexual orientatn. I ultimately cid that I wouldn’t want to work for somewhere that wouldn’t hire me bee I’m gay, bee don’t fe me.