Gay Men In Professional Sports

     In this research post I want to again speak about homosexuality in professional sports, but this time I want to focus in on male sports.  There is a large stigma in sports that in order to play a sport you need to be masculine.  This, however, is an unfair stereotype.  There have been many successful professional athletes who have been gay, though they have usually had to avoid coming out of the closet until after they came out. For example, in Michael Messner's article Becoming 100% Straight, he discusses how he interviewed former Olympian Tom Waddell about his being gay as a professional athlete and his later coming out and starting the Gay Games.  He also discusses how Tom Waddell knew that he was homosexual, but got into sports because he didn't feel comfortable with having that image at the time and wanted to be viewed as a man.  "I wanted to be viewed as male, otherwise I would be a dancer today.  I wanted the male, macho image of an athlete.  So I was protected by a very hard shell. (Messner, pg. 403)."  This quote shows the problems that homosexuals face in sports where they might try to keep a masculine image in order to be viewed as "tough", and therefore keep themselves closeted instead of being open about their sexuality.

    Part of the problems that I believe are causing problems for people who are homosexual  in sports and stopping them from coming out of the closet is the homophobic sentiments that people have in locker rooms. People are afraid that if someone is gay and is changing in the same locker room as them, then they might be afraid that just because the person is gay that they are staring at them or being perverted in some way, when that is just ridiculous.  For some reason, people tend to look for masculine characteristics in their athletes, both male and female.  "Gay male athletes are assumed to not exist.  Part of the reason for this is because our society views gay men as "weak" and "effeminate," and therefore non-masculine (Anne Gregory, pg. 270)."  One our society is able to understand that just because you are good at sports that does not mean that you have to be masculine, then maybe people will start to feel more comfortable coming out of the closet.  However, at the rate that this is going, it may be a long time for this to happen and take a few brave individuals to be the first to come out while still playing sports to make others feel comfortable.

Andrew Novak

Works Cited

Gregory, Anne. "Rethinking Homophobia in Sports: Legal Protections for Gay and Lesbian Athletes and Coaches." N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2013. <http://laworgs.depaul.edu/journals/sports_law/documents/gregory%20homophobia%20in%20sports.pdf>.

Messner, Michael. "Becoming 100% Straight Inspired by Feminism." Research Paper on Becoming 100% Straight Inspired by Feminism, Michael Messner Hypothesizes That ... Research Papers. N.p., n.d. Web.