Gay Professional Athletes: Is It Time?
I had promised myself after seeing Todd Jones' remarks that I would not get involved in the line of rhetoric regarding a gay ballplayer in the big leagues. However, I feel it time that I comment, and while my remarks may not change the world — or even change a single mind — I need to vocalize my opinion.
We as a society are victimized by the fear of the unknown. We fear death, we fear change, and we apparently fear homosexual athletes. All of these fears are, of course, relatively irrational.
Take a look in every clubhouse in the big leagues. You have white athletes, black athletes, Hispanic athletes, Jewish athletes, Catholic athletes, and every other type of person imaginable. Many of these same individuals have the same fear of persecution — whether verbal or physical — as would a gay athlete. Look at Hank Aaron. He got called a "nigger" as frequently as he got called Hank, and received death threats, merely for being a successful black athlete and threatening to take the top spot in the record books — a spot which many ignorant fans believed belonged only with a white athlete.
I find it asinine that here we are a few months shy of the 30th anniversary of Hank Aaron's breaking of perhaps the most celebrated record in all of sport, and the same narrow-minded and archaic mindset still exists in this country. Instead of the black athlete being the villain, it is now the gay athlete, or the notion thereof. The morality issue of being gay versus straight is another issue for another time, and one into which I will not delve in this column or on this website. That said, it seems that the old-boy network in this country still believes in the same notion of the athlete from days past, in terms of lifestyle, skin color, and heritage. This has to change.
The most moronic argument of all in the anti-gay crowd is that the gay athlete would not be able to control himself in the shower. Are we in this country so ignorant of the homosexual lifestyle as to believe that having a gay athlete in the clubhouse automatically indicates their willingness to migrate to every swinging dick they see? Heterosexual athletes do not try to get in the pants of every female that pays them any mind, so why should we believe that homosexual athletes would try to pick up every guy on their team?
There are 25 men in a baseball clubhouse, and they all have the same job: winning ballgames. As former big-leaguer Billy Bean mentioned (paraphrasing), professional athletes have put in too much work honing their craft to embarrass themselves. If a big-leaguer can't get laid by the legions of groupies that follow professional athletes, it is unlikely that having a gay ballplayer in the clubhouse will suddenly make them attractive to said player.
I have mentioned the diversity in clubhouses earlier in this piece, and everyone on these teams rallies to support each other as teammates on the field, even if they do not associate off the field. To suggest that a gay player would support his teammates any less — or that his teammates should support him any less — because of his lifestyle is, at best, a shallow argument. I am aghast at the idea that, as Todd Jones suggested, pitchers would throw at a gay player or attempt to injure him.
There are homosexuals among us every day. Whenever you walk down the street, eat at a restaurant, go see a movie, or walk into your office, you are likely to see someone who is gay, whether you know about it or not. They conduct themselves just as you do, and have the same fears, concerns, and stress that you have in your life. They are just as much human as are you — they just don't have the same sexual preference as you do, in some cases. They should not be treated as subhuman just because they do not share your views.
In summation, it is 2003. If we are truly to progress as a nation and a people, we need to be aware that people share different views and ideals in this country, and this diversity makes us great as a nation. We need to calm our irrational fears of the gay athlete, and stop making people live their lives in silence.
File last modified March 01, 2004
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