Why There Few Openly Gay Athlet In Men's Profsnal Sports : NPR

Contents:

• EACH OF AMERI’S BIG 5 SPORTS CURRENTLY HAS AN OUT GAY MAN THE PROS. THAT’S NEVER HAPPENED
• MEET THE 16 OUT GAY AND BI FOOTBALL PLAYERS THE NFL’S 103-YEAR HISTORY
• NFL PROUDLY CLAR 'FOOTBALL IS GAY' NEW VIO
• UNNAMED PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALLER REVEALS HE IS GAY LETTER BUT SAYS HE N'T GO PUBLIC
• IN A LLEGE FOOTBALL FIRST, HBCU PLAYER OUT AS GAY
• JAKE DANIELS BE FIRST UK MALE FOOTBALLER TO E OUT AS GAY SCE 1990
• WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS
• THE 39 CURRENT NFL PLAYERS HAVE ALL PLAYED WH AN OUT GAY TEAMMATE
• 8 MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS WHO DARED TO COME OUT AS GAY
• 'I'M A FOOTBALLER AND I'M GAY.' JOSH CAVALLO BE ONLY CURRENT OPENLY GAY MALE PROFSNAL FOOTBALLER
• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

EACH OF AMERI’S BIG 5 SPORTS CURRENTLY HAS AN OUT GAY MAN THE PROS. THAT’S NEVER HAPPENED

Four athlet om the Uned Stat jo Canadian Prokop breakg down barriers for gay and bisexual athlet big-time sports. In addn, there have been out gay athlet like Andrew Goldste playg other sports like lacrosse.

MEET THE 16 OUT GAY AND BI FOOTBALL PLAYERS THE NFL’S 103-YEAR HISTORY

Prokop lled the ont office of the Nashville Predators to let them know he’s gay, then wh their support he me out to the world. 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.

NFL PROUDLY CLAR 'FOOTBALL IS GAY' NEW VIO

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. The NFL has played for more than 100 years and there have been 16 gay or bi players to e out publicly. Over the years, Outsports has known of a few other players who are gay but have never e out, even when retired.

Matea offensive leman Jake Strer, who is gay, is one of five current or former LGBTQ athlet profiled.

UNNAMED PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALLER REVEALS HE IS GAY LETTER BUT SAYS HE N'T GO PUBLIC

“When I returned to football my sophomore year after g out was bee I knew that if I qu football was jt the begng of thgs I would qu or hold myself back om bee I was gay,” Strer told Outsports. “To fast forward to my last football game my senr year and have end wh ‘NFL 360’ there to clu me a story celebratg the first openly gay football player NFL history is still really unbelievable to me.

EST, we see scen of Strer’s last game as a Matea Mtang, terspersed wh him speakg about beg gay football and what Nassib’s g out meant to him. Their experienc are universal, ways good and bad, for many LGBTQ people — Pick talkg about the pa om the ial rejectn by her mom; O’Callaghan discsg suicidal thoughts before beg rcued by a therapist; Rapoport’s touchg rellectn of g out to NFL Commissner Roger Gooll by approachg him at a Super Bowl event holdg her girliend’s hand and Gooll’s se upon seeg ; Saffold discsg growg up Black and gay on the South Si of Chigo “where there are rampant levels of homophobia” and Strer on how he ed to worry “about how bad my life might be after I me out. “I thk 11- or 12-year-old kids playg football prr to Carl Nassib g out didn’t thk there uld be a gay football player,” Rapoport said.

IN A LLEGE FOOTBALL FIRST, HBCU PLAYER OUT AS GAY

FirstThe Rairs fensive leman me out a statement posted to his Instagram acunt on Monday, beg the first active player the league to publicly intify as gay.ViotranscripttranscriptCarl Nassib Be First Openly Gay Active N.F.L. Player to publicly clare that he is gay.“I jt want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay,” Nassib said a vio posted to his Instagram acunt.

I actually hope that like one day vios like this and the whole g-out procs are jt not necsary, but until then I’m gog to do my bt and my part to cultivate a culture that’s acceptg, that’s passnate,” before addg that he would donate $100,000 to The Trevor Project, a nonprof group that foc on suici preventn efforts among lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer and qutng youth.“Sadly, I have agonized over this moment for the last 15 years,” he wrote the same post.Nassib, a five-year N.F.L.

Players Associatn also said a Twter post that he and the unn supported Nassib.Nassib’s announcement, ma durg Pri Month, is a signifint turng pot for the N.F.L., and mak him the first openly gay active player the league’s 101-year history.“Sports are, many ways, one of the last bastns of a place where homophobia n thrive,” said Cathy Renna, a spokwoman for the Natnal L.G.B.T.Q. Athlet who me before him.”Michael Sam, an all-Amerin fensive leman at Missouri, had been viewed as the most likely to acquire that distctn when he announced he is gay before he beg chosen by the Rams the seventh round of the 2014 N.F.L.

JAKE DANIELS BE FIRST UK MALE FOOTBALLER TO E OUT AS GAY SCE 1990

The Dallas Cowboys signed Sam to their practice squad, but he never played a regular season game.ImageCred...LM Otero/Associated PrsSam’s draft stat was seen as a barometer of whether the climate of men’s pro sports was beg more acceptg of gay athlet, particularly bee Febary 2014 the N.B.A.

WHY THERE ARE FEW OPENLY GAY ATHLET IN MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS

Had jt bee the first of the four tradnal major Amerin men’s sports leagu to have an openly gay active player when Jason Colls joed the Nets.But Sam left the N.F.L. Players had prevly announced publicly that they were gay, but all after their playg reers were over.

David Kopay beme the first pro football player to publicly e out as gay 1975, three years after he retired.

He played for ne seasons wh the San Francis 49ers and four other teams the 1960s and 1970s, and has sce bee an activist and an ambassador for the Gay Gam, a quadrennial sportg event.Roy Simmons was the send former player to announce that he was gay, dog so 1992 after his reer wh the Giants and Washgton Football Team had end.

THE 39 CURRENT NFL PLAYERS HAVE ALL PLAYED WH AN OUT GAY TEAMMATE

Simmons said he cultivated a reputatn for beg the life of the party, and had to partmentalize his football life and his personal life.Simmons also said he never would have clared himself gay durg the four seasons he played for the N.F.L. You are gladiators; you are male; you kick butt.”In recent years, the league has publicly supported Pri Month through promotnal efforts like changg official social media avatars to clu rabows and supportg the You Can Play Project, which provis rourc to enurage clivy youth sports, even as some players have ma rogatory statements about gay people wh ltle penalty or supported groups that oppose gay rights.ImageCred...Steve Wewerka for The New York TimIn 2013, Chris Culliver of the San Francis 49ers and Chris Clemons of the Seattle Seahawks ma offensive ments when asked about the prospect of havg a gay teammate.“Got no gay people on the team,” Culliver said.

They were very ugly ments.”San Francis nng back Garrison Hearst apologized 2002 for g a slur and sayg he wouldn’t want a gay player as a teammate. His ment me after the former Mnota Vikgs player Esera Tuaolo publicly me out as gay that year after he had retired. Players like Brendon Ayanbajo, who played wh the Baltimore Ravens, fend same-sex marriage and gay rights and supported Sam at the time.

"In whe letters on a black background, the word "gay" was then replaced wh words cludg "lbian, " "betiful, " "queer, " "transgenr, " "power" and "life. An unnamed Premier League footballer has revealed he is gay an open letter, but isn't prepared to e out star has opened up about the torment of keepg his sexualy a secret and has aimed the letter at thori and fans, scribg how he is takg a "huge step" revealg his sexualy.

8 MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS WHO DARED TO COME OUT AS GAY

In a letter which has been shared wh Sky News by the Jt Fashanu Foundatn, the player wr: "I am gay. The unknown star is beg supported by the Jt Fashanu Foundatn, which is n by the former footballer's niece, Fashanu, who played for top flight clubs om the late 1970s to the mid 1980s, was the first profsnal footballer to be openly gay. Ms Fashanu says there are no openly gay or bisexual male profsnal footballers the untry at prent and this revelatn was a "signifint moment and a posive step forward" tacklg this told Sky News: "The fact this player wanted to wre a letter about this is a huge step forward.

"In a Digal, Culture, Media and Sport Select Commtee hearg on 7 July, former England women's team footballer Enla Alo said gay male footballers wouldn't risk g out the public doma bee of the homophobic backlash they would said there are current footballers who have told their teammat they are gay, but add: "The issue really now is that fear of what fans will do and are gog to say, but I don't thk that is as legimate a fear as ed to be bee we're livg a world now where beg gay is somethg that is wily accepted. There are untls tim I've heard homophobic chants and ments om supporters directed at no one particular.

'I'M A FOOTBALLER AND I'M GAY.' JOSH CAVALLO BE ONLY CURRENT OPENLY GAY MALE PROFSNAL FOOTBALLER

A Hampton Universy football player me out publicly as gay, a first for a football player at a historilly Black llege or universy, acrdg to, an LGBTQ sports news se.

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

Byron Perks, a Divisn I fensive back for the Hampton Universy Pirat, me out as gay an Instagram story shared Wednday. ’ Y, this is who I am, this is who I’ve been, and this is who I’m gog to be, ” Perks wrote the story, acrdg to (Instagram stori are only available for 24 hours, so Perks’ origal story is no longer viewable) several Divisn I football players have e out as gay durg their llege reers — cludg the College of Idaho’s Cy Hicks, Amherst College’s Avery Saffold and Kansas State’s Stt Frantz — Perks is the first to do so at one of the untry’s 101 HBCUs, acrdg to both Outsports and Perks.

Perks told Outsports that he’d like to help other gay Black men who are stgglg wh their sexualy. “I’m sure the young man has heard his fair share of slurs om teammat unaware that he is gay.

Cyd Zeigler, the -founr of Outsports, noted that “so many ‘first’ gay athlet — John Amaechi, Jason Colls, Michael Sam — have been Black men. The Blackpool forward Jake Daniels has end s of silence wh men’s football to bee the first player the UK to e out as gay sce Jt Fashanu 1990. Photograph: Pl Dennis/TGS Photo/ShutterstockDaniels’s revelatn is a strikg landmark that when men’s football is more engaged wh social issu than any recent time, but still unable to ce progrs LGBTQ reprentatn wh the year Alai Uned’s Josh Cavallo beme the only male top-flight profsnal footballer the world to e out as gay, but others are yet to follow.