GAY MCNUTT NAMED HEAD SOFTBALL COACH - Texas Woman's Universy Athletics

gay college softball coaches

Kirk Walker, the longtime Oregon State softball ach, is possibly the only publicly gay man achg a Divisn I sport.

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

UCLA’s Kirk Walker had his own g out as a gay man sports. He knows the power of visibily. * gay college softball coaches *

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. 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.

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.

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

Sce g out as gay 2007, the softball ach has been a role mol and leadg advote for LGBTQ people sports. Also nomated: gger Very Smh. * gay college softball coaches *

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. 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.

OPENLY GAY COLLEGE COACH MAK A LOW-PROFILE ROLE MOL

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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. Her supporters acced nservativ of tryg to damage her chanc by whisperg that she was gay.

GAY LLEGE SOFTBALL PLAYER NAVIGAT AN ACCEPTG TEAM AND SILENT FAY

We know of 174 gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr athlet who have e out om the ACC, SEC, Pac-12, Big 12 and Big Ten. That’s a lot. * gay college softball coaches *

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. 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.

GAY ACH FOUND HIS SOLACE, REER THROWG A SOFTBALL

DENTON, Texas - Gay McNutt, a veteran head ach wh 36 years of llegiate achg experience, has been named the head ach of the Texas Woman's Universy softball * gay college softball coaches *

“But not so funny to a lot of the women I play wh who are not homosexual.

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

GAY MCNUTT NAMED HEAD SOFTBALL COACH

“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. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTOpenly Gay College Coach Mak a Low-Profile Role Nash for The New York TimMay 21, 2010TUALATIN, Ore. 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.

PLAYG SOFTBALL PROV YOU'RE GAY

“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.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* GAY COLLEGE SOFTBALL COACHES

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

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