Homosexuality in Sports

In the world today, sexuality is like everything. Since there are so many different sexual orientations, it's kind of helpful to be clear about your sexuality. In sports, especially, male sports, the sexual orientation of the players is usually straight because, sports are a "manly" activity and gay men are well, not "manly", right? Who is to say what is manly or not? But, I digress, that's beside the point that I am trying to make. The point that I am saying is that, in male sports, the athletes are supposed to be straight, but when some of them reveal themselves to be gay, there is chaos. The straight athletes begin to think of all the times that they shared showers and seen each other naked in the locker room with the now openly gay athletes. They begin to think of whether or not the gay athletes were attracted to them the whole time they were teammates or whatever. This of course leads to questions and homophobia. The straight athletes feel threatened that they had a gay guy around them in their most private moments.

There are different reactions however. I asked three teen aged boys that play basketball on teams, all from different schools and teams, how they would feel if one of their teammates came out and said that that he was gay? I will call them Boy A, Boy B, and Boy C to protect their identities. When asked, Boy A said that he would be mad, he didn't give an explanation of why. Boy B said that he would feel "bad, weird, strange, uncomfortable, but then again depends how close we were." When asked why, he said "I dunno, natural reaction." Boy C said that it wouldn't matter to him as long as he didn't receive any sexual advances from that player. He admits that it would feel a bit weird, but there is nothing he could do to change that.

All of their answers were very similar, but not the same. However, they did have one common reaction. They all would feel some kind of strange feeling or animosity toward that person. I guess it's because of the closeness that players feel and then they may feel that that closeness and the bond is betrayed. Also, they could feel that people will think that they are gay as well, since their teammate is gay. Of course, this is not true, but just one of the many misconceptions and ignorants of homophobic people. This type of behavior and judgement affects many people and can ruin careers. Maybe gay athletes will have to reconsider whether or not they want to come out and at what times. Let's see what the future holds.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/08/national/main628303.shtml
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