DOCSLIB.ORG

Examination on American Gay Male Athletes' Coming Out

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Examination on American Gay Male Athletes' Coming Out EXAMINATION ON AMERICAN GAY MALE ATHLETES’ COMING OUT STORIES ON THE US MAJOR NEWSPAPER OUTLETS By LIN LEPENG A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2018 © 2018 Lin Lepeng To my Mom and Dad ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank my committee chair, Dr. Trevor Bopp, for all of his support, patience, and guidance. I thank my committee members, Dr. Michael Sagas, Dr. Christine Wegner, and Dr. Wanta Wayne, for their suggestions and support. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 6 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 7 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................. 8 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 11 Statement of Problem ............................................................................................. 17 Research Aims ....................................................................................................... 18 2 REVIEW OF PERTINENT LITERATURE ............................................................... 20 Hegemonic Masculinity ........................................................................................... 20 Framing Theory ...................................................................................................... 24 Framing of Gay Men in the US General Culture ..................................................... 28 Media Portrayals of Gay Men Issues ...................................................................... 31 Media Portrayals of Gay Athletes ........................................................................... 33 3 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................... 39 Design and Procedure ............................................................................................ 41 Data Collection ....................................................................................................... 39 4 RESULTS ............................................................................................................... 44 5 DISCUSSION ......................................................................................................... 55 6 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 66 7 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ......................................................... 70 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 72 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ............................................................................................ 78 5 LIST OF TABLES Table page 4-1 Frequency of coming out stories and number of American gay male athletes that came out by time groups ............................................................................. 48 4-2 Means and standard deviation of word count by time groups ............................. 49 4-3 Presence and percentage of themes by time groups ......................................... 50 4-4 Frequency and presence of framing tone valence by time groups ..................... 52 4-5 Basic information under team and individual categories. .................................... 53 4-6 Difference of frequency, word count, framing tone and theme under categories of team and individual. ...................................................................... 53 4-7 Basic information under contact and noncontact categories. ............................. 54 4-8 Difference of frequency, word count, framing tone and theme under categories of contact and noncontact. ................................................................ 54 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 4-1 Frequency of coming out stories and number of American gay male athletes that came out by time groups. Note: Total number of coming out stories N= 121; Total and number of American gay male athletes came out N= 51; ........... 48 4-2 Presence and percentage of themes by time groups. Note: 1. Factual, 2. Sexuality, 3.Skepticism, 4. Health Issues, 5. Tangible Business Aspects, 6. Legal Issues, 7. Optimism, 8. Competition, 9. Identity, 10. Social, 11. Political .. 51 4-3 Frequency and presence of framing tone valence by time groups ..................... 52 7 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LGBTQ Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer MLB Major League Baseball NBA National Basketball Association NFL National Football League NHL National Hockey League 8 Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science EXAMINATION ON AMERICAN GAY MALE ATHLETES’ COMING OUT STORIES ON THE US MAJOR NEWSPAPER OUTLETS By Lin Lepeng August 2018 Chair: Trevor Bopp Major: Sport Management This study sought to examine the representation and framing of American gay male athletes in the US major newspaper outlets online version. This study conducted an analysis from the standpoints of frequency of coming out stories, themes, word count and three dimensional framing tone (positive, neutral, negative). Several significant find- ings were yielded from this study. This research argued that frequency of coming out stories and themes are subjected to specific time periods, which have a close correla- tion with social background at the time. With the analysis under variable of sports cate- gories (individual, team, contact and non-contact), there was a significant difference shown from the four analysis standpoints. Athletes from team sports and physical con- tact sports were more likely to receive coverage when they came out, whereas athletes doing individual sports and non-physical contact sports received less coverage when they announced their coming out. However, no significant difference was found in word count, themes and framing tone. Overall, American gay male athletes enjoyed fair treatment in their coming out stories covered by major newspaper outlets in the US. Findings from this study con- firmed previous literature findings showing that athletes who publicly announce their 9 sexuality were usually treated with biased and unfair treatment in their coming out sto- ries back then. 10 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Robbie Rogers, a former American professional soccer player, revealed that he was gay in 2013. Only a few months later, Jason Collins, a professional basketball player from the National Basketball Association, made national headlines with the reve- lation of his sexuality. In 2014, the National Football League defensive end Michael Sam publicly came out as gay, receiving coverage from numerous media sources. It seems there was an imminent feeling that sports in America was finally ready to strike down its “bastion” against gay male athletes and welcome a wave of professional ath- letes to come forth with their sexuality. However, there was no wave and hardly even a trickle of athletes coming out in the wake of Collins, Sam and Rogers. Throughout the history of the four most dominant professional men’s sport leagues in the United States, the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball (MLB), and Nation- al Hockey League (NHL), only a few athletes have revealed their sexual identity. This silence was initially broken in 1975 when Dave Kopay, a former NFL player revealed he was gay. Since 2012, there have been only six gay or bisexual athletes from any of one these four leagues coming forth with their sexuality (Kian & Vincent, 2014). One com- mon thing among these publicly-out athletes is that they all revealed their sexual orien- tation after the end of their careers. It was not until 2013 that an athlete publicly came out as gay during his active service in the four major leagues: Jason Collins is recog- nized as the first openly gay active athlete in any US-based professional team sport (Ki- an, Anderson, Vincent and Murray, 2015). There is little presence of openly gay athletes in the arena of professional sports, especially male athletes (Hekma,1998; Gomillion & Giuliano, 2011). Although homo- 11 sexuality has received much more acceptance in many areas of society in recent years, the field of professional sports seems to be an exception (Butterworth, 2006; Nisbet and Myers, 2012). Among every sport in the US, football has long been portrayed as the epitome of the most masculine of men’s team sports (Gross, 2012). In 2017, the NFL had 32 teams consisting of a total of 1,696 players. According to Jason Whitlock (2013), a national sport columnist and NFL reporter, 15% of NFL players are homosexual which is almost twice the number (8%) of US adult men who self-identify as gay (Kian, Ander- son, Vincent and Murray, 2015). However, there are only a few former NFL athletes who have come out. Although there is no official documentation conducted on athletes’ sexuality na- tionwide, and there is no specific investigatory number targeted for US sports specifical- ly, it is safe to
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Journalistic Series About Homosexuality in Sports
    WHO’S ON THE PLAYING FIELD?: A JOURNALISTIC SERIES ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY IN SPORTS Brian Conlin A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication Chapel Hill 2010 Committee: Adviser: Walter Spearman Professor Jan Yopp Reader: John Thomas Kerr Jr. Distinguished Professor Richard Cole Reader: Professor Karla A. Henderson © 2010 Brian Conlin ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT BRIAN CONLIN: Who’s on the Playing Field?: A Journalistic Series about Homosexuality in Sports (Under the direction of Jan Yopp, Dr. Richard Cole and Dr. Karla Henderson) The number of openly gay and lesbian athletes has boomed since the 1980s. The Gay Games is one example of this. The first Gay Games in 1982 had 1,300 participants. By 1994, the Gay Games drew 11,000 participants. In three articles, this master’s thesis examines various aspects of gays and lesbians in sports. The first article covers the Gay Games. It includes information about its supporters and protestors, a brief history and a look ahead to the upcoming Gay Games and beyond. The second article profiles a rugby player on the Carolina Kodiaks, one of two gay rugby teams in North Carolina. The third article examines how journalists, especially those in sports departments, cover LGBT issues. The thesis aims to explore the issues of the gay and lesbian community as they pursue sports and to show that LGBT issues in sport will become more important as society becomes more tolerant.
    [Show full text]
  • Kopay, David (B
    Kopay, David (b. 1942) by Robert Kellerman Encyclopedia Copyright © 2015, glbtq, Inc. Entry Copyright © 2002, glbtq, Inc. Reprinted from http://www.glbtq.com David Kopay made headlines in 1975 when he came out publicly as a gay man. A veteran of the National Football League who played on five NFL teams, he was the first American professional athlete to acknowledge publicly his homosexuality. He thus stands near the head of the short list of openly gay and lesbian elite athletes. Born on June 28, 1942 in Chicago into a strict Roman Catholic family, Kopay was the second of Anton and Marguerite Kopay's four children. When David was in grammar school, the family moved to North Hollywood, California. At the age of fourteen, he enrolled in Claretian Junior Seminary, a boarding school for students contemplating the priesthood. Although he enjoyed many aspects of the seminary, Kopay left it after eighteen months. David began his football career at a southern California football powerhouse, Notre Dame High School, where his older brother Tony had preceded him. Named to the all-Catholic Conference football all-star team, he had an outstanding high school football career. Kopay originally planned to attend Marquette University in Milwaukee on a football scholarship, but when Marquette discontinued its football program in 1961, he instead went to the University of Washington, where his brother was a member of the team. There Kopay excelled in football and joined the Theta Chi fraternity. In 1963, as co-captain of the team, he led the Huskies to the PAC-10 conference championship and an appearance in the Rose Bowl.
    [Show full text]
  • Michael Sam and the NFL Locker Room: How Masculinities Theory Explains the Way We View Gay Athletes Lisa A
    Marquette Sports Law Review Volume 25 Issue 1 Symposium: Sports Law: Marquette University Article 7 Law School Faculty Perspectives Michael Sam and the NFL Locker Room: How Masculinities Theory Explains the Way We View Gay Athletes Lisa A. Mazzie Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/sportslaw Part of the Entertainment and Sports Law Commons Repository Citation Lisa A. Mazzie, Michael Sam and the NFL Locker Room: How Masculinities Theory Explains the Way We View Gay Athletes, 25 Marq. Sports L. Rev. 129 (2014) Available at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/sportslaw/vol25/iss1/7 This Symposium is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MAZZIE FINAL FORMATTED 1/23/2015 11:24 AM MICHAEL SAM AND THE NFL LOCKER ROOM: HOW MASCULINITIES THEORY EXPLAINS THE WAY WE VIEW GAY ATHLETES LISA A. MAZZIE “If some of us don’t take on the oppressive labels and publicly prove them wrong, we’ll stay trapped by the stereotypes for the rest of our lives.” Former NFL player David Kopay1 Associate Professor of Legal Writing, Marquette University Law School. B.A., mass communica- tion, with honors, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse; J.D., cum laude, Order of the Coif, University of Wisconsin Law School; Ph.D. candidate in Educational Policy & Leadership, Marquette University. I would like to thank Dean Joseph D. Kearney and Marquette Law School for the financial assistance to complete this article. As well, I’d like to thank Shane Roeber, Marquette Law School J.D.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pennsylvania State University the Graduate School College Of
    The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Health and Human Development POLITICAL FOOTBALL: SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND THE PROFESSIONAL GRIDIRON IN THE UNITED STATES, 1955-1979 A Dissertation in Kinesiology by Andrew D. Linden © 2016 Andrew D. Linden Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2016 ii The dissertation of Andrew D. Linden was reviewed and approved* by the following: Jaime Schultz Associate Professor of Kinesiology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Dissertation Adviser Chair of Committee Mark Dyreson Professor of Kinesiology R. Scott Kretchmar Professor of Exercise and Sport Science Nan Elizabeth Woodruff Professor of Modern U.S. History and African American Studies Stephen J. Piazza Professor of Kinesiology Graduate Program Director, Department of Kinesiology *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT Politics and political movements appeared in professional football since the sport emerged. However, because the National Football League (NFL) was not yet popular across the country, these issues had little effect on the broader culture. In the second half of the century, the NFL became the most popular consumer sport in the country. Conflicts between labor and capital, between men and women, between races and ethnicities, and between groups associated with the broader counterculture and liberation movements were brought by political advocates into the sport. Nonetheless, throughout this same time, the league had political priorities of its own and endorsed certain political issues while not engaging others. In this dissertation, I utilize a “multiple histories” approach to analyze the effect of social movements on the NFL and demonstrate the influence of political football in American culture.
    [Show full text]
  • Reading the Pink Locker Room: on Football Culture and Title IX
    William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice Volume 14 (2007-2008) Issue 1 William & Mary Journal of Women and Article 2 the Law October 2007 Reading the Pink Locker Room: On Football Culture and Title IX Erin E. Buzuvis Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmjowl Part of the Education Law Commons Repository Citation Erin E. Buzuvis, Reading the Pink Locker Room: On Football Culture and Title IX, 14 Wm. & Mary J. Women & L. 1 (2007), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmjowl/vol14/iss1/2 Copyright c 2007 by the authors. This article is brought to you by the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmjowl READING THE PINK LOCKER ROOM: ON FOOTBALL CULTURE AND TITLE IX ERIN E. BuzuvIs* ABSTRACT This article examines the public controversy that erupted after local media reported on a comment I made about the University of Iowa's decision to renovate the football stadium's visiting team locker room entirely in pink. I submitted my statement in response to the University Steering Committee on NCAA Certification's request for feedback on a draft report and suggested that the "joke" behind the pink d6cor traded in sexist and homophobic values. As such, I con- cluded that it belonged in the comprehensive analysis of gender equity that the committee was preparing. I immediately received hundreds of hateful e-mails and was the subject of thousands of invidious online postings. The content of these messages intrigued the national media, whose reporting fueled the controversy for several months.
    [Show full text]
  • Sports: Gay Male by Jim Buzinski
    Sports: Gay Male by Jim Buzinski Encyclopedia Copyright © 2015, glbtq, Inc. Entry Copyright © 2002, glbtq, Inc. Reprinted from http://www.glbtq.com Billy Bean retired from professional baseball in In 1993 the Canadian Broadcasting Company produced a radio documentary on gay 1995 and has since become a prominent athletes in professional sports entitled "The Final Closet." It examined the fact that activist for gay rights. there were no openly gay male athletes in any of the major professional North Publicity photograph American team sports--football, baseball, basketball, and hockey. provided by Outright Speakers and Talent In the early years of the twentieth century, that is still the case, although signs of Bureau. Courtesy Outright change are on the horizon. Speakers and Talent Bureau. While some lesbians have come out at the height of their athletic careers, including five at the 2000 Summer Olympics, most gay male athletes have stayed firmly in the closet. Justin Fashanu, an English soccer player, and Ian Roberts, an Australian rugby star, are notable in that they declared their homosexuality while still active in team sports. A handful of male athletes in individual sports have come out while still active, including figure skating champions John Curry and Rudy Galindo, 2000 Olympic diver David Pichler, and six-time Olympic equestrian Robert Dover, but they remain very rare. "Some closeted gay male athletes realize that they have a lot to lose by 'coming out.' As long as they stay 'in the closet,' they can share the benefits of hegemonic masculinity," observe Michael A. Messner and Donald F. Sabo in their 1994 book Rethinking Masculinity.
    [Show full text]
  • 2006 LGBT Pride Recognition Awards Honorees California State Assembly Floor Session, Monday, August 14, 2006, 1 P.M
    Office of Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg State Capitol, Room 2003 Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg, Chair Sacramento, CA 95814 Senator Christine Kehoe (916) 319-2045, Fax (916) 319-2774 Senator Sheila James Kuehl [email protected] Senator Carole Migden http://www.assembly.ca.gov/LGBT_Caucus Assemblymember John Laird Assemblymember Mark Leno Eric Astacaan, Consultant CALIFORNIA LEGISLATIVE LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, & TRANSGENDER (LGBT) CAUCUS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Monday, August 14, 2006 Contact: Eric Astacaan, 916-319-2226 LGBT CAUCUS HONORS SIX OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUALS WITH THE FIRST-EVER LGBT PRIDE RECOGNITION AWARDS SACRAMENTO – The California Legislative Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Caucus today presented the first-ever LGBT Pride Recognition Awards to six outstanding individuals at a ceremony during the California State Assembly floor session. These awards were conferred to six openly-gay and lesbian individuals in recognition of their extraordinary accomplishments and leadership in their respective fields of endeavors. The honorees were: • Faith, Community Activism, Health & Human Services: Bishop Dr. Yvette A. Flunder, Senior Pastor, City of Refuge United Church of Christ ( • Public Service, Business, and Philanthropy: The Honorable James Hormel, former U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg • Fashion, Film, and Television: Ms. Honey Labrador, filmmaker, model, TV host: Bravo’s Queer Eye for the Straight Girl • Business, Community Activism, and Philanthropy: Ms. Kathy Levinson, former E*Trade Chief Operating Officer and President, consultant • Military Service, Film, and Television: Mr. Reichen Lehmkuhl, former U.S. Air Force captain, graduate of the Air Force Academy, model / actor • Sports, Music, and Theatre: Mr. Esera Tuaolo, former NFL defensive lineman, Atlanta Falcons, Minnesota Vikings, Green Bay Packers “We are thrilled to honor these wonderful representatives of the LGBT community,” said Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg, Chair of the Legislative LGBT Caucus.
    [Show full text]
  • A Documentary Directed by Malcolm Ingram
    SXSW 2015 - Official Selection Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival 2015 - Official Selection - Big Ideas AFI Docs Film Festival 2015 – Official Selection Frameline San Francisco LGBT Film Festival 2015 - Centerpiece Gala Outfest Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival 2015 – Centerpiece Gala BFI Flare London LGBT Film Festival 2015 - Closing Night Film Boston LGBT Film Festival 2015 - Closing Night Film A Documentary Directed By Malcolm Ingram PRESS NOTES Press Contact Matt Thomas [email protected] Cell – 416-432-5379 SYNOPSIS Out to Win is a documentary film from award-winning Sundance alumni Malcolm Ingram that serves as an overview and examination of lives and careers of aspiring and professional gay and lesbian athletes from all over the world. Chronicling the present, framed within a historical context of those that came before, this film highlights the experiences of athletes who have fought and struggled, both in and out of the closet, to represent the LGBT community and their true selves. This film is told through the voices of pioneers, present day heroes, tomorrow's superstars and the people who've helped them get to where they are including agents, managers, fans, team mates, coaches, organizations and members of the media. DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT – MALCOLM INGRAM I was sitting watching TV when the news broke that an openly gay football player was setting his sights on the NFL for the first time. I knew right away this was a game changer. While gay marriage has long been a main talking point in the fight for gay rights, I instantly recognized the significance of the possibility that a gay man was going to be teleported into millions of people's living rooms via the perceived virile world of football.
    [Show full text]
  • Depictions of LGBTQ Athletes in Young Adult Literature That Interrogate Sport Culture
    Language Arts Journal of Michigan Volume 36 Issue 1 Article 7 2-1-2021 Depictions of LGBTQ Athletes in Young Adult Literature that Interrogate Sport Culture Katherine Mason Cramer Wichita State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/lajm Recommended Citation Cramer, Katherine Mason (2021) "Depictions of LGBTQ Athletes in Young Adult Literature that Interrogate Sport Culture," Language Arts Journal of Michigan: Vol. 36: Iss. 1, Article 7. Available at: https://doi.org/10.9707/2168-149X.2253 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@GVSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Language Arts Journal of Michigan by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@GVSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. METHODS Depictions of LGBTQ Athletes in Young Adult Literature that Interrogate Sport Culture KATHERINE MASON CRAMER here is no doubt that sports play a huge of inclusivity for LGBTQ athletes in K-12, collegiate, and role in schools and in the lives of students, professional sports, there is still “tremendous unstated whether they participate in those sports pressure not to come out” (Biegel, 2010, p. 153). This is or not. Indeed, according to Stuart Biegel, especially true at the professional level in men’s basketball, author of The Right to Be Out: Sexual football, baseball, and hockey (Affleck, 2017). Biegel (2010) Orientation and Gender Identity in America’s Public Schools notes that “the culture of interscholastic athletics continues T(2010), in many schools, sport culture and school culture to mirror that of higher-level programs,” which means that are “one in the same” (p.
    [Show full text]
  • Gay Prideout of the Closets and Into the Streets!
    IV: GAY PRIDE--OUT OF THE CLOSETS AND INTO THE STREETS! (1969-1980) As the sixties drew to a close, the American political establishment found it increasingly difficult to conduct business as usual. Passionate opposition to the Vietnam War inspired even more militant tactics than had the civil rights movement. This conflict led to Lyndon Johnson©s surprise announcement in March 1968 that he would not seek another term in the White House. The assassinations of Martin Luther King in April, which provoked riots in Washington and in other cities, suppressed by the National Guard, and of Robert Kennedy in June of 1968, added to the violent and confrontational atmosphere. In August what some have called a "police riot" occurred outside the Democratic National Convention center in Chicago, when officers overreacted and assaulted hundreds of unruly, chanting demonstrators. To many, this incident was proof that the norms of liberal democracy were breaking down. Students, first at Columbia on April 23, 1968 and then on many other campuses, revolted, occupying buildings and paralyzing the educational process. It was in this climate, both dire, after Nixon defeated Humphrey, and hopeful, that a new and vigorous phase of the struggle for gay rights began. As early as January 1967 and August 1968 incidents occurred in the Los Angeles area that intensified the radical mood of the movement. Next, a chanting mob of angry demonstrators shouting slogans of liberation and threatening revolution claimed to spearhead what they named the "gay community", whose members they exhorted to "come out!" proudly. Stonewall What lay behind this transformation? Scholars as well as activists agree in tracing the revolution to "Stonewall." On the early morning of June 28, 1969, the police--following a familiar pattern--raided a bar in Greenwich Village that many deemed seedy: the Stonewall Inn.
    [Show full text]
  • ONLY NFL PLAYER to OPEN the DOOR - Seattle Times, the (WA) - August 7, 1988 - Page C11 August 7, 1988 | Seattle Times, the (WA) | SCOTT OSTLER | Page C11
    DAVE KOPAY: ONLY NFL PLAYER TO OPEN THE DOOR - Seattle Times, The (WA) - August 7, 1988 - page C11 August 7, 1988 | Seattle Times, The (WA) | SCOTT OSTLER | Page C11 It's a strange niche Dave Kopay has carved out for himself in the world of sports, not to mention the worlds of psychology, sexuality and linoleum. Eleven years after stepping out of the closet, publicly proclaiming his sexual preference, Kopay remains one of a kind - the queer football player. T hat's his description, not mine. And it's not entirely accurate. He's a former football player. Kopay played at the University of Washington and for 10 years in the National Football Leag ue, for the San Francisco 49ers, Detroit Lions, Washington Redskins, Green Bay Packers and (briefly) Raiders. He was a running back, one of those sub-superstar types who make a career of being a little tougher than the guys who are a little faster. And he was tough. ``I could get as crazy as anyone,'' he says. In 1977 he wrote a book about his life as a homosexual and a football player. T he book caused a big stir. A lot of people had evidently assumed you couldn't be both. Kopay set them straight, so to speak. Eleven years later, Dave is the first, last and only football player to have come out of the closet. A few other athletes - the late Redskin receiver Jerry Smith, former Dodger Glenn Burke, tennis' Martina Navratilova - have had their sexual preferences disclosed publicly, but not on their own terms.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study of Homosexuality in Menâ•Žs
    Seton Hall University eRepository @ Seton Hall Law School Student Scholarship Seton Hall Law 5-1-2014 Getting Open: A Study Of Homosexuality In Men’s Professional Team Sports In North America Paul Michael LaCaruba Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.shu.edu/student_scholarship Recommended Citation LaCaruba, Paul Michael, "Getting Open: A Study Of Homosexuality In Men’s Professional Team Sports In North America" (2014). Law School Student Scholarship. 508. https://scholarship.shu.edu/student_scholarship/508 Getting Open A study of homosexuality in men’s professional team sports in North America. Paul LaCaruba Seton Hall University School of Law Gender and Sexuality Law, Spring 2013 Preface On Monday, April 29, National Basketball Association (NBA) veteran center Jason Collins became the first active player in North America’s four major men’s professional team sports to publicly disclose his homosexuality.1 Collins did so on his own terms, penning his own announcement for the May 6 issue of Sports Illustrated. He began, “I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay.'' I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, "I'm different." If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I'm raising my hand.2 Collins is a journeyman; he has played for six teams in 12 seasons, most recently as a reserve with the Washington Wizards after a midseason trade from the Boston Celtics.
    [Show full text]