More and more, we hear about athlet g out of the closet — and to gym locker rooms. Expert Rick Clemons tackl mon fears straight men have about sharg locker rooms wh gay men and explas why those fears are pletely unfound.
Contents:
IS HE CHECKG ME OUT? WHAT GAY MEN THK IN THE LOCKER ROOM
* gay locker *
WE ARE an all-male clothg optnal bed and breakfast retreat terg to gay, bi, and straight men 21 years or olr. At my school, the very place that I first observed queer cursy, I was sred to e out, fearg my own physil and emotnal wasn’t jt the school locker room where I heard homophobic remarks. Image me, a young black gay Christian male, tryg to rencile my sexualy wh school, home, and church life.
What happens to a black gay Christian who liv a hoehold that hat him; who really believed that he was gog to Hell.
Perhaps was the support of iends, nts, and those around me that ma me not want to feel ashamed about myself anymore, even if that meant God damng me to the begng of senr year, I went om “I’m gay” to whoever asked, to “Can you stop sayg faggot please? A month later, I cid to no longer participate the mentorship program, and every time I was asked why, I ma exc about beg too time, I retreated to my fantasy world, where I was not sixteen and gay a homophobic environment, but a world where I was olr, the future, when I would arrive to a betiful home om a long day at work, and be weled by a hband who lov me and bears my burns on his shoulrs.
BLUE MOON RORT FOR GAY MEN
I was thrilled to be leavg and movg on, but I uld see that many of my fellow graduat were facg siar hurdl, on that I had enuntered, and had only masked their tth wh homophobia.
In this example, you happened to see him naked a settg that n be sexually arog for a lot of gay man. I see hts of ternalized homophobia that le, and I thk he’d be a lot more fortable if he alt wh .
Rich: Jane Ward’s 2015 book Not Gay kicked off a lot of disurse about “straight” guys who engage “gay” sex, and I thk did a real disservice to nuance by beg totally crlo of self-labelg. Given the societal prsure to be straight and the history of closeted gay, bi, and queer men sayg one thg and dog another, I don’t necsarily thk we need to take people at their word when they say they’re straight and do thgs that suggt otherwise.