Queer issues are in the news lately for far more than Guelph’s Pride celebrations this past week.
Phoenix Suns president and CEO Rick Welts revealed to the public that he is gay on Sunday May 15 through a story posted to the New York Times website. The announcement was made by Welts allegedly to help to fight one of the strongest and most prevalent instances of homophobia, that of homophobia in professional sports.
Although having such a figure in sports publicly declare his homosexuality is a significant step, it was made even stronger by the outpouring of support, both for him and for the queer community that coincided. Two Suns players, Grant Hill and Jared Dudley, recently launched a public service announcement speaking out against homophobia in sports, and Charles Barkley went on the record in support of gay men in sports, saying that on more than one occasion, he had gay teammates in the NBA, and that was fine by him.
In addition to this, New York Rangers player Sean Avery recorded a public service announcement in support of marriage equality.
The queer community has never had a Dr. King. Through decades of fighting for equal rights have taken place, there has never been a single figurehead or face for the cause that people could identify with.
Pride celebrations, including parades, have taken the place of much of that. More importantly than their use as a tool to promote community engagement or raise awareness of issues, they promote visibility. That is the first and possibly the most important step that can take place: we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it. All that. To raise support for any issue, raising awareness that the affected people exist within ones own community— that it is an issue affecting friends, neighbours and family— goes a long way.
Welts’s admission didn’t make headlines. We’re over a decade removed from Ellen’s “Yes, I’m Gay” Time Magazine cover. Such things are no longer met with the kind of hooplah they once were. In one sense, as they should be: an individual’s sexual orientation is ultimately irrelevant, and making a big deal about coming out of the closet sensationalizes something that will hopefully one day not be newsworthy in the least.
However, with professional sports, should that still be the case? John Amaechi, former Utah Jazz player, came out in a memoir published in 2007, making him the first openly gay NBA player. No others have followed suit. In the 1990s, two former Major League Baseball players came out: Glenn Burke and Billy Bean. Three former National Football League players came out, Esera Tuaolo, Roy Simmons and Dave Kopay. Former, former, former. There has yet to be a major league athlete of any sport to come out while still playing.
The thing about not having a figurehead for a cause, any cause, is that being able to put a face to the issue is one of the easiest ways to relate to that issue. It puts it on a human level that public service announcements and parades can’t do. Young people who may be struggling with their own homosexuality have few role models, successful queer people who they can look to, to remind them that their sexuality is not an impediment.
This is especially true for professional sports. A teenager looking to be a baseball star only has examples of people forced to wait until retirement to be honest about their sexuality.
In an interview with Cleveland area radio station ESPN 850, Amaechi commented on Welts’s admission, and homosexually and homophobia in general in the NBA.
“There’s a lot of pressure to stay in the closet so that you don’t cause any kind of uproar,” Amaechi said. He also attributed much of the homophobia in the game to “the old-fashioned thinking from some of the people in charge.”
General sentiment towards queer rights and right to marriage are generally shown to be variable upon age. Younger generations are growing up with queer people on television and in public, the Will & Grace generation. But yet still, professional sports remains shockingly absent of openly gay athletes. These public service announcements, while admirable and no doubt do good for raising awareness, have only come from heterosexual athletes. They can only do so much. If, as Charles Barkley insists, there are gay athletes within professional sports who simply don’t make public their orientation should be encouraged to come out of the closet. Gayness isn’t news, and it doesn’t need to be. But without someone to blaze a trail for future generations, homophobia in sports, whether real or merely a stigma, could never truly be eradicated.
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