Openly Gay pro athletes

[mike4949]

Red Sox star Johnny Damon was talking to one of the host of Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, Johnny says he does not have a problem ith an openly gay teammate. But, do you think others are so willing? Is American sports fans and other athletes ready for a openly gay pro Sports athlete?

 

[Ivan Diller]

Probably not ready. This country continues to treat minorities horribly, why would they then start to treat gays any better? We have a long way to go to fight racism, sexism, and homophobia.

 

[Sexyangel329]

I agree with Ivan people no matter how high profile somone is such as athletes still have the same mentality its nto to say they some people are cool with it buecause what a persons sexual preference, ethnicity, religous beliefs are, has nothing to do with how they perform on the job.

 

[ChuckD]

Hey Mike. Good topic!

I'll keep it as the "Gay Trivia/Pride" topic for today, instead of putting my own up.


As for openly gay athletes (I know I'm gonna butcher her name) there is Martina Navratolova, the tennis star. I'm not sure if she was out when she played, but there are always "rumors" about the lady tennis and golf athletes.

There is also Rudy Galindo, the figure skater, who won the National Championships, and a broze medal in the world championships back in 1996. He was out and open at the time of these medal wins, but once again, there are always rumors and asumptions about male figure skaters.

 

[yburgos7]

Hey Mike. Good topic!

I'll keep it as the "Gay Trivia/Pride" topic for today, instead of putting my own up.


As for openly gay athletes (I know I'm gonna butcher her name) there is Martina Navratolova, the tennis star. I'm not sure if she was out when she played, but there are always "rumors" about the lady tennis and golf athletes.

There is also Rudy Galindo, the figure skater, who won the National Championships, and a broze medal in the world championships back in 1996. He was out and open at the time of these medal wins, but once again, there are always rumors and asumptions about male figure skaters.

I think that in sports like tennis, golf and figure skating it's easier for a person to "come out" than for lets say baseball, basketball, hockey and football....these sports are considered by many to be "macho" sports...and if an athlete "comes out" then they are considered "weak" and not able to handle the roughness of the sport...plus tennis, golf and figure skating are considered individual sports so an athlete really doesn't have to worry what other members think...where as baseball, basketball, hockey and football are team/group sports...and you are always going to find somebody(ies) (even in this day and age) within the team that feels threatened by the "out of the closet" team mate...

 

[ChuckD]

I think football players are gay.

they shower and change and are all naked in front of each other, and they are always patting each others' butts on the playing field.

 

[mike4949]

Good topic Chuck, It's seems that not a big issue is made about female pro athletes coming out. The WNBA has a few open lesbian players.

 

[ChuckD]

most gay athletes stay in the closet until they retire. Too much risk of discrimination against them.

Actually, there are the "gay games" where out athletes can compete openly.

In fact, the Gay Games used to be called the Gay Olympics. However the IOC (Internation Olympic Comittee) took them to court, suing them to stop them from using that name. They won.

There are other competitions that use the word "Olympic", the "rat" games (rats are raced) the Crab Cake Olympics (where chefs cook crab cakes) but they refused to let gay athletes use the word "Olympics".