I don't have any gay friends. I don't really know too many gay men -- I mean, I may know a few gay men, but there could be some that are gay and I don't know that they're gay.
And, quite frankly, I don't care.
The same goes for pro athletes. Sure, it makes for sordid locker room humor and your typical tabloid rumoring. But I'll tell you what: If Michael Jordan came out and said he was gay in the midst of his prime, you think people would suddenly stop wanting to see him play? You think Jerry Krause would cut him from the Bulls and no NBA team would dare touch him? You think Big Chief Triangle would change his offense?
If teammates refused to accept a gay player, wouldn't that make a mockery of the "Diversity" programs these major leagues have? Wouldn't it make hypocrites out of those who celebrate Jackie Robinson's breakthrough and the appearance of Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith in the Super Bowl? These three men didn't do their thing just because they were black, they did it because they were good.
Eddy Curry said it best: "If one of my teammates came out and said that, I'd be supportive of him because those are my teammates. Those are the guys I went to war with night in and night out. Regardless of what he does off the court, we battle together."
Still, we won't know the truth until it happens.
John Amaechi's coming-out media party sparks the conversation, but what does it really say when it comes to how NBA players would tolerate a gay teammate? He came out after his career ended. I understand he probably kept it to himself out of fear (or maybe he didn't fully accept it yet), but we won't really know how a gay athlete will be accepted in major pro sports until one emerges. Up to now, only women -- LPGA, WTA and WNBA -- have had the courage to be who they are in the public eye. For men, I can only imagine how scary it can be to live the lie.
But when it does happen, once audiences, players and, of course, the media get over the expected uproar, innuendo and pontificating (uh, like I'm doing here), once the game starts the only thing that will matter again is the final score. And if the dude can help your team win.
He's queer. You cheer. Get over it.
But maybe we'll only accept a homosexual male athlete if he's flamboyant and entertaining, like Dennis Rodman. Like tthose dudes from the "Queer Eye" show, which you know you watched. You know you were curious.
Maybe a few of you became metrosexual. Look around the diamond-studded, fashion-savvy NBA and tell me the league isn't loaded with metros. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
From South Park:
Skeeter: Just because a guy cares about how he looks and is in touch with his feminine side doesn't mean he's gay anymore.
Stuart: Yeah. Metrosexual means you're straight, but you appreciate the gay culture.
Randy: It's super-fabulous. Would you like some shirazz?
Comments (29)
Well-said, Alan, thanks. And South Park always helps to bring a point home.
You know how I know you're gay? I once saw you make a spinach dip in a sourdough bread bowl...
You know how I know you're gay? Because you macramed yourself a pair of jean shorts.
You know how queer,s are; you share a locker room with him and the next thing you know he's sitting in your lap
"If Michael Jordan came out and said he was gay in the midst of his prime, you think people would suddenly stop wanting to see him play?"
Why on earth would someone "come out" as being gay? I have never in my life "come out" as being heterosexual.
The need to "come out" i.e. announce publicly your sexual preferences, seems to be somewhat of a preculiar emotional or psychological condition.
There is nothing wrong with being heterosexual. There is nothing wrong with being homosexual.
There is something preculiar about the need to advertise your sexual desires to a public which probably couldn't care less.
If I didn't know better, I might say there are a lot of people just screaming for attention and approval.
Most guys would not have a problem winning games with a gay man but will they invite him out to do other things that team mates do
Are we kidding on this? Based on the general population there are gay athletes in all major sports now and the sports havn't imploded. What's different is our own perceptions. The only reason they have to keep quiet is to protect themselves from the rants of the ignorant. Why does it matter? If they make it to what ever level they can, then thier sexual orientation is moot. Do you worry about going in the bedroom of every actor, politician, service repair man etc etc to determine their worthiness? get over it allready
i agree that gay people shouldn't have to "come out." but unfortunately we live in a society that basically forces you to hide it unless you want to be ridiculed and discriminated against. look at lebron james' ludicrous remarks about how he couldn't trust a teammate that wouldn't admit to him he were gay, like it was any of his business. when celebrities come out it gives regular kids the courage to admit to themselves and their friends that they're gay, saving them from failed relationships, depression, suicide etc. what i find more interesting in this particular thought experiment is that while jordan isn't gay, he is a womanizing jerk. if you meet anyone who worked in a bar in chicago during the jordan-bulls era you'll hear very interesting stories about his having sex with strippers in back rooms of bars before or after poker games who were then threatened by his bodyguards to keep their mouths shout or suffer severe consequences. it's quite possible that in today's society jordan's image would be tarnished in some people's minds if it turned out he was gay, but people will gladly turn the other way when stories of much severe improprieties arise.
wait, do you sell more newspapers, magazines or get more hits on your website when you mention anyone famous being gay? get over yourselves, will ya? no point to keep separating. i mean, we already have skin color that keeps separating us.......
I heard Hubie Brown's comments on gay players coming out during the Heat/Cavs game. His thesis was, "This 2007."
Why don't more athletes say they're gay? Part of it is the inherent shame in being a homosexual. People who have nothing to hide come to the light. People who are ashamed stay in the darkness.
Even in today's permissive society, people understand it's sin and not natural. The current politically correct culture does not change that.
Generations come and go, social mores come in and out of fashion, but God's word will always stand.
I am glad Isiah is so accepting and tolerant of gay players in the NBA because as a father of a gay college freshman he should be accepting. He is finally showing a positive side.
"Why on earth would someone "come out" as being gay? I have never in my life "come out" as being heterosexual."
we don't have to come out as hetero--we can go on dates or walk down the streets with our girlfriends, get married, whatever. whether or not you think homosexuality is normal, gay people can't do that stuff with their partners w/o people making a big deal about it, so it makes sense that they'd announce it first so they could say it before the tabloids do.
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...we don't have to come out as hetero...
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Thank you, Jesse, for pointing out what should be obvious to anyone who pays attention! It's incredible (and scary!) to see the leaps of logic some folks will make in order to justify their prejudices. Willful ignorance is an ugly thing!
Here's a willful leap of logic: equating a sexual preference with skin color that you're born with. Equating behavior with something that you have no choice about is illogical.
There is no conclusive scientific evidence to say that someone is born gay.
I may be tempted to commit adultery, but I regulate those wrong sexual urges.
The jokes told here indicate the undercurrent of true resentment for players who violate trust by being secretly gay in the locker room.
As LeBron James said, the real issue is trust. Players don't declare their homosexuality while they are active players because they are ashamed of it.
If you were a sexual deviant wouldn't you be ashamed? Wouldn't you want to change?
This is the reality, not the plitically correct fantasy.
The jokes made above, as you say, are not the undercurrent of anything.
THEY ARE MOVIE LINES (from The 40-year-old Virgin).
As in...
"You know how I know you're gay? You listen to Coldplay."
Newsday is trash. This whole blog is a waste. Here's another outrageous thought, what if Newsday was a real newspaper?
Missy, God's word?
Can you cite that for me...oh wait you're basing that off of one line of text from the bible. The bible which isn't based off of God but a collection of writings from many people (none God or Jesus) who borrowed heavily from myth, ancient chinese philosophy, and other older religons. Then those writings were mutated, changed, and partly ommitted by Kings, and powerful religious figures through thousands of years to meet their personal beliefs and needs. Not to mention how many times it's writings have been translated through time and we read it in a translated form. Yeah good source. Come back with Jesus because I need to hear it from the man who says "love everyone" own mouth that he wants you to be shameful and hate people for being gay.
I never want to hear denouncing of gays from a religion that has had hundreds (was it thousands?) of male priests caught redhanded or admitting to sexually abusing and raping underage male children.
Joe Hill, here's a willful leap of logic for you: Wanting to keep your private life seperate from your professional life means that you are ashamed of your private life. What? How bout the crap you'd get if you came out and someone like you were there to harass them about it is enough to just keep it to yourself. Does your wife know that you constantly have to keep yourself from committing adultery? I have no problem not thinking about cheating on my girlfriend. You need help.
...and South Park rocks.
Sorry Missy and Joe Hill. All that was meant to be directed toward PM.
I wish I could edit the comment.
Again, very sorry. Some reason I thought the posted by was before the comment not after.
Post and argument regardless, I demand you apologize for using a photo of Patrick Ewing on the Sonics. I thought it was an unspoken agreement that his post-Knicks career in fact didn't exist.
Magic Johnson was forced to retire because he was HIV-positive, and most athletes are not bright enough to know that HIV is not just a gay disease, so how friendly do you think these athletes are going to be if they equate gay with AIDS and think if you touch their bare skin they might get the disease? Sadly, that idea is still common among the more uneducated, and most athletes would never have qualified for college (or even High School) without their physical skills paying the bills.
So, if MJ were gay, or Wayne Gretzky or Alex Rodriquez, all would have been forced from their sports by the ignorance.
Kurt,
Looks like you paid attention in one of your freshman intro courses taught by some godless, liberal academic.
A little further study would show you that the New Testament is the most reliable of ancient documents. There are over 15,000 manuscripts that still exist from all over the world. The New Testament, unlike most ancient documents was written with a generation of its subject (Jesus).
The same Jesus who condemned Sodom, a place where the men of the city gathered, demanding to rape some men who were staying as guests in Lot's house. The same Jesus who inspired Paul to write several times that homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.
However, they can, like those tempted to commit other sexual sins, change their minds and believe in Jesus, and thus be saved.
Kurt, maybe you're so used to living in Sodom that you don't remember what purity is anymore.
PM
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There is no conclusive scientific evidence to say that someone is born gay.
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You're right...but there's no conclusive evidence that someone is born Catholic. People CHOOSE their religion. Do they still have a right to worship--or NOT worship--as they please? You bet they do...just so long as it doesn't interfere with someone else's right to believe as s/he sees fit.
If your religious/moral/ethical beliefs tell you that homosexuality is 'wrong', then by all means don't engage in it. My ethical beliefs tell me that being gay is perfectly fine (whether it's genetic or just a matter of good taste doesn't matter one iota).
What's great about liberal democracy is that our Constitution guarantees us 'freedom of conscience'. Which simply means that my conscience trumps your bigotry when it comes to how I live my life. I suggest you get used to that fact.
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Sorry Missy and Joe Hill. All that was meant to be directed toward PM.
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LOL...no harm done, Kurt. I LOVED your excellent--albeit misdirected--previous post! Hang in there...we're up against some real Neanderthals.
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If I didn't know better, I might say there are a lot of people just screaming for attention and approval.
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I sure am glad that you 'know better', then. Why is it that you ACT like you DON'T know better?
your most likely a great writer. you wouldn't have a job if you weren't. don't you ever,ever ever use mj's name and gay in the same sentence. have some class and write about something else. the all-star game is in a week. go nuts. (no pun)
I hang my head in shame that I missed that revered piece of cinema, "The 40 year old Virgin," and see how that completely obliterates my point about people uncomfortable with the issue making jokes about it.
Who is the "Neanderthal?" The one who answers an argument with substance, or the one who resorts to name calling?
If you can refute what I'm saying, do it. Otherwise, I'll just have to conclude that you're uninformed and repeating whatever you've heard from your friends.
PM
Who in the hell cares
There is only one easy statement that can be made regarding homosexuality. IT IS NOT NATURAL! Not even scientifically.
Can one male penguin and another male penguin create offspring? Can a female giraffe and another female giraffe create offspring? Can a male human and another male human create new life? Human females? The answers of course is no.
There was only one pairing of sexes that was created that would allow for the creation of new life.
Religion and all faiths aside, homosexuality is un-natural to the order of life, thus making it scientifically abnormal. Many of us have just become a little more accepting of it than others.
While I enjoy shows like Will & Grace, I believe that homosexuality is abnormal and was not intended to be that way.
I agree with the earlier post about how many of those who are gay do not "come out" because of the shame they feel. Why? Because the life they lead is abnormal and is contrary to the natural order of life.
Good points, Chris.
As to the extremely well-taken but anonymous comment, "Who in the hell cares?" that would be me.
Some of you guys with your apathetic, "live and let live and leave me alone" attitude give the impression that you really couldn't care less about these people and their suffering. Is your stance merely one of convenience?
I care deeply about the plight of homosexuals and know several who have escaped this sad and unnatural lifestyle.
Sports is just one place where the debate is still going on. You'll see a story in the press every time a sports figure "comes out," but what you'll never see is when a gay person comes to Christ, forsakes the gay lifestyle and gets happily married. It happens all the time, and they don't ever want to hear about it or report it, or talk about it.