D-I men's basketball has its first openly gay player

Hey - stop the press "first openly tranny homosexual bowler comes out!!"

Yay, progress!!!

 

You mean this guy?

 

Designers across the country are currently being instructed not to use that photo with the story ...

 

I guess I'm not surprised there's some eye rolling to this news, especially from the usual suspects, but I think what Gordon is doing represents another step in the shift toward acceptance of gay male athletes (I specify male athletes because I think acceptance in that arena, so to speak, has lagged far behind acceptance of homosexual female athletes).

I'm sure this isn't BRAVE!!!! enough for YF, but Gordon's announcement, as a sophomore, is important. This was a decision made by a player who knows his team will have to answer questions about it. His team ail have to handle any ignorance associated with it next season. He spoke with them and they supported him in a way that made him comfortable to do this, and I commend both Gordon and the Minutemen for this.

He's obviously taken the announcements of Jason Collins and Michael Sam to heart. Those announcements made it easier for him to open up. Hopefully, his announcement will make it easier for others.

We're seeing a real tidal surge in sports toward the fight for equality and for the acceptance of gays and I'm damn proud to see it taking a foothold in some of the most traditionally anti-homosexual strongholds of our society.

 

I don't know; I get real sense of narcissism from these proclamations from athletes about being gay. Just kind of rubs me the wrong way.

I'd like to see it where some male athlete just casually starts dating another guy, without the fanfare, and when asked about it, either by teammates or the media, just shrugs his shoulders, says, "yeah, I am. So?" And walks away.

THAT to me would be real progress.

 

I'd be very curious to see how that would play out ... especially in the media. Would it be sensationalized for a few days, then you start seeing the columns pointing out that this was a step forward?

 

I find it ironic, yes very ironic, thinking about how much time this SportsJournalists.com community has collectively spent -- and not being hypocritical here, that I spent when I was in this business -- covering, analyzing and debating spoon-fed, fluffy, insignificant bullshit in sports over the years, that anyone could debate the newsworthiness of this story.

Just a couple of weeks ago there was a page-long thread about a guy who witnessed one high school tennis player make a bad call in a high school tennis match against another high school tennis player, and his ethical dilemma about how to cover it. Not one snarky comment about "it's an effing high school tennis match! Who cares?!" But this? Yes. This is not news. This is worthy of generations-old butt-sex jokes. This.

Many of the bigots and clowns here sicken me. I come here less and less, and when I do I usually leave with the blessing of having reminded myself why I'm glad I'm no longer in this business. You think because you know grammar and can avoid run-on sentences that makes you some kind of genius. But most of what I see is herd mentality.

 

Heard Gordon speak for the first time. Very deep manly voice thus
breaking another stereo type.

 

Well said

 

Media coverage of most of these announcements has bordered on shameful. Why should that stop now?

 

I'm encouraged that POO has provided us with a game plan for what we need to do to keep him away -- and it's apparently shared by Devil. If only we could get OOP to do the same.

 

Pretty much.

I come for Bob Cook and Steak Snabler, and Ace back when he posted more often. And there are many others who don't act like kids that I enjoy reading from time to time. Just like anything else, it's a few bad apples that kinda ruin the experience.