Gays in Sports

Can't anyone be a bigot today? Why is Hardaway apologizing? He feels a little heat and goes all weak on us. Fag.

End sarcasm.

Thew is dead on. I would only quibble with "verb tense" here and there. There is no doubt that professional sports is not receptive to gays. But the status quo will not change unless there are more John Amaechis coming out. He has made it easier for the next guy and the one after that will be easier still.

Hardaway represents a point of view that comes from his heart, not his head. (I do not mean that in a good way.) When I was part of a fraternity, the thought of a gay Brother would not have sat well with me or the rest of the guys. Years removed, I know its wrong, but I still felt it.

I think, for me, the issue was that sex was always at the front of our "public" persona. Who are you going to "do"? Who are you doing? How many? We were young guys looking to score with girls. Promoting that image (and the resulting "successes") helped our fraternity recruit members and throw great parties well attended by the opposite sex. It fed into not only the public perception, but our own self image. For better or worse and psychologically very complicated. I would weakly say we were really nice guys, but we behaved like brutish cads.

In the midst of this sea of testosterone, the relationship between Brothers was very simple: beers and sports. Very simple. A openly gay Brother would have complicated all that (to say nothing of the total "blech" factor). I do not know if we, in fact, had a gay brother in our midst. But if we did, he would not have gotten one ounce of encouragement to come out of the closet.

Fraternities, sports teams, the military. None are particularly receptive to homosexuals. This will change, but over time.

More to follow on this issue...