Ten years ago, lacrosse player Andrew Goldste beme the first openly gay athlete to be drafted by a profsnal sports team. Today, he's spirg a new generatn of young athlet.
Contents:
- HARVARD LACROSSE PLAYER TO TEAMMAT: ‘GUYS, I’M GAY’
- GAY ATHLET IN LACROSSE – WHAT’S THE PROBLEM HERE?
- GAY LLEGE PLAYER SAYS LACROSSE NEEDS TO NORMALIZE G OUT
- GAY U.S. LACROSSE GOALIE ME OUT TO ‘NORMALIZE WHAT MAK DIFFERENT’
HARVARD LACROSSE PLAYER TO TEAMMAT: ‘GUYS, I’M GAY’
* is lacrosse a gay sport *
Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach a US men’s profsnal sports league to e out as gay.
Per Outsports, as of September 2022, there have only ever been 16 players NFL history to publicly e out as gay or bisexual. Carl Nassib beme the first active NFL player league history to announce that he is gay 2021. Per Outsports, Maxen is the “first publicly out male ach a major Amerin men’s pro sports league, ” wh WNBA ach Curt Miller, who publicly me out to the media as gay 2015, also a publicly out male ach an Amerin profsnal sports league.
Noah Knopf was received warmly after g out to his Harvard teammat, but says the sport has to al wh an graed homophobia.
GAY ATHLET IN LACROSSE – WHAT’S THE PROBLEM HERE?
“I wanted to talk to you this morng to tell you that I’m gay. “I uld tell people that I’m gay. When I was 19, I heard on a podst that the new ernor of Colorado was gay, and felt for a moment that the world might be changg.
Never had I properly acknowledged the fact that I was gay. While bshg my teeth a few nights before talkg to my parents, I realized that I had never even said the words “I’m gay” out loud before.
“I’m gay, ” I whispered the mirror, and sed to myself. I also felt the need to expla myself my first few nversatns about beg gay.
GAY LLEGE PLAYER SAYS LACROSSE NEEDS TO NORMALIZE G OUT
I’m gay. I had asked my iends and fay to keep our nversatns private bee, after wnsg the way that people lacrosse talk about beg gay, I wanted my teammat to hear the news om me.
I believed that after three years on the team, they would know me as Noah first and the gay kid send, but our locker room was not immune to the homophobic jok and sults that are the norm men’s lacrosse. Although my experience as a gay whe man is different om Ellison’s experience as a Black man, his words spired me. But one factor I began to nsir was the way that people talk about beg gay our culture.
GAY U.S. LACROSSE GOALIE ME OUT TO ‘NORMALIZE WHAT MAK DIFFERENT’
For the first time throughout the fall, I started payg closer attentn to the jok, sults and ments about beg gay that had surround me sce I was a teenager.
I first heard the word “faggot” locker rooms when I was fifth gra — before I unrstood what meant to be gay. Even the progrsive circl where I me om, kids sually threw around homophobic jok and sults que routely, cludg those of who would have said we believed was pletely OK to be gay. I’m embarrassed to say that I too ma homophobic jok and lghed at homophobic sults.