Homophobia in Team Sports

[Montana Moe]

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091012/zirin

Team sports is one of the places left in the modern workforce where homophobia is largely accepted. I applaud Ayanbadejo and Fujita for standng up for what they believe in.
This certainly is not a "football only problem". How can this be changed when players are raised in these macho environments? What would be the repercussions of an active player coming out? I know we have had a few athletes come out after their careers had passed (Tualo, Ameche, etc.)

While I think the article has a clear bias for toward Christian athletic organizations and their sphere of influence, it looks to play a part.

Cultural issues also effect this mindset. Athletes from Latin American nations are likely to have a different mindset than an athlete from Canada, etc.

Maybe this issue has been discussed to death, but I thought the link/article was worthy of discussion...

[Boblobla]

No Homo.

[Montana Moe]

Originally Posted by Boblobla

No Homo.

Pedo?

[PIMking]

on one of my teams last year that I joined at the beginning of the year that I didn't know anyone one of the players were gay. He wasn't a super flamboyant type but his "partner" told me after the game.

I am not pretty enough for him but it really doesn't bother me any. I'm strait and I know he wouldn't make a move on me. I dont see what the big deal is. Everyone has the right to be misrable just as much as strait people.

[iggnuef]

"If it looks like a rat, smells like a rat, it's a rat" T.O.

[PIMking]

I would punch TO right in his big mouth if he were on my team.

[ResAlien]

Wait, a sport where a guy slides his hands ever so gentle right into another man's taint, settles in, moves his digits around oh so sweetly, and then proceeds to bark out orders to get the response he wants, has a problem with alleged homo? Dude, all professional sports have latent homo going on, they just chose to ignore them. Sure, the ass slap is cool on the court or the field, do it in regular life? Gay. Just lame on all parties.

[FlamingLonghorn]

seriously pro sports needs to be ready for this shift... its a shame that we still have problems with homosexuality in this age.

[krazycanuck]

this thread is gay

[Cactus Jack]

Originally Posted by krazycanuck

this thread is gay

Not that there is anything wrong with that.... are you all hitting on me?

[iggnuef]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

Wait, a sport where a guy slides his hands ever so gentle right into another man's taint, settles in, moves his digits around oh so sweetly, and then proceeds to bark out orders to get the response he wants, has a problem with alleged homo? Dude, all professional sports have latent homo going on, they just chose to ignore them. Sure, the ass slap is cool on the court or the field, do it in regular life? Gay. Just lame on all parties.

As long as it's followd by a "Good game!" it's not gay!!

[MRCboicgy]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

Wait, a sport where a guy slides his hands ever so gentle right into another man's taint, settles in, moves his digits around oh so sweetly, and then proceeds to bark out orders to get the response he wants, has a problem with alleged homo? Dude, all professional sports have latent homo going on, they just chose to ignore them. Sure, the ass slap is cool on the court or the field, do it in regular life? Gay. Just lame on all parties.

And people wonder why I played football in high school...

[Locke]

Originally Posted by MRCboicgy

And people wonder why I played football in high school...

You dig fat guys?

[mykalberta]

Just like in normal life outside of sports - no one cares who or what you fcuk so long as you preform on the field.

Keep your personal life to yourself (gay or not) and just show up and do your job. Contrary to popular belief - whatever you fcuk doesnt affect me - I DONT CARE. I dont want to talk with you about just like I dont want to talk to my friend about his junk in her trunk exploits.

[troutman]

I remember when Justin Fashanu was a big story:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Fashanu

In 1990 Fashanu encountered hostility after becoming the first, and still only, prominent footballer to identify himself publicly as gay.

In 1998 he was questioned by American police when a seventeen-year-old accused him of sexual assault. The police dropped the allegation because of lack of evidence, but Fashanu committed suicide in May of that year, protesting that he had "already been presumed guilty".

Fashanu agreed an exclusive with The Sun tabloid to come out as gay. They ran the headline as "£1m Football Star: I AM GAY" on 22 October 1990.[4] He claimed to have had an affair with a married Conservative MP, whom he first met in a London gay bar. "We ended up in bed together at his London flat," he said.[5] A week later, his brother John Fashanu agreed an exclusive with The Voice under the headline "John Fashanu: My Gay Brother is an outcast."[6]

Fashanu was interviewed for the July 1991 cover story of Gay Times, where the situation was summarised as: The Sun dragged out the tale with titillating stories of sexual encounters with unnamed MPs, football players and pop stars, which, he claims, were largely untrue. The revelations, nevertheless, earned him a considerable sum of money but he says he was offered even more by others who wanted him to stay in the closet. He admits that he wasn't fully prepared for the backlash that followed and his career in football ... has suffered "heavy damage". Although he's fully fit, no club has offered him a full-time contract since the story first appeared.[7] In 1992 he agreed to front Loud'n'proud a new national radio series aimed at young lesbians and gay men, but the pilot with Fashanu presenting was turned down by BBC Radio Five, it was later commissioned with a female presenter for BBC Radio 1.[8]

Fashanu was listed at number 99 in the Top 500 Lesbian and Gay Heroes in The Pink Paper,[12] 26 September 1997, issue 500, page 15.

A decade after his death, Fashanu is still the only professional footballer in the world to disclose that he was gay according to the BBC.[13][14]

In March 2009 a football team, The Justin Fashanu All-stars, was christened at a special event in Brighton, supported by the FA.[15] The team, named in his honour, was created by the Justin Campaign which is a campaign against homophobia in football and promotes the inclusion of openly gay players in football.[16]

[Bill Bumface]

Meh, as long as they aren't hitting the showers with a chub, who cares. They're probably more uncomfortable about the situation than I am.

[HOOT]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

Sure, the ass slap is cool on the court or the field, do it in regular life?

Is this why I have been fired at my last 10 jobs?

I thought there was no better way to show a team attitude like a nice open palm slap on the ass.

[StrayBullet]

Originally Posted by HOOT

I thought there was no better way to show a team attitude like a nice open palm slap on the ass.

*Pause*

[Montana Moe]

Here's the full interview with Fujita, explains how the fact that he is adopted is a primary reason why he's outspoken on the issue of equalty. He's an interesting guy...

http://www.edgeofsports.com/2009-10-06-460/index.html

Dave Zirin: Scott, do you have any concerns that teammates, fans, people will say Scott Fujita may be married and have kids, but maybe on the down low he might really be gay? Do you have concern that teammates, bloggers, the press will talk that kind of smack about you either behind your back or to your face?

Scott Fujita: No, I have no concern about that whatsoever. I know who I am. My wife knows who I am. I don’t care one way or the other Dave. I imagine that when some of this gets out guys in the locker room might give me a hard time, and they always give me a hard time. They call me the Pinko Communist Fag from Berkley. I’m used to it. I can take it all.

[Gozer]

I can take it all.

*snicker*