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SPORTING CHANCES - BEING OUT IN THE FIELD
Out gay men and women in sport
One of the few remaining bastions of homophobia in the UK, for some reason professional sport is still dragging its trainer-shod heels.
"Football is the most hostile of sports to change"
At present, the only consistency in understanding professional sport’s attitude to the LGBT community is inconsistency. You see, for every insensitive, clumsy comment like FIFA Chairman Sepp Blatter’s woefullly out of touch remarks on gay football fans attending the 2022 World Cup in
Gareth Thomas, the former
On the flipside, there are even a few sportsmen who have profited from being openly receptive to the gay market. David Beckham has never had a problem being a gay icon and actively encourages it, while rugby player Gavin Henson has garnered a sizeable gay fan base, especially after his spangly turn – often bare-chested – in Strictly Come Dancing.
However, it’s fair to say that while trailblazers like tennis superstar Billie-Jean King, NBA basketball star John Amaechi and Aussie Rugby League superstar Ian Roberts have been pioneers in their chosen sports, they are still the exception rather than the rule in 2011.
Football
Professional: A sport where it is just not acceptable to be out and proud. Football is the most hostile of mainstream sports to change. There are currently no high-profile gay footballers in the
However with latent homophobia still a part of chants on the terraces, it’s unsurprising that players are preferring to keep their private lives just that. The last footballer to come out was the ex-Norwich and
History has shown us in football that even the suggestion that you are a little bit “different”, could lead you to be targeted by opposing fans. Famously, the former England and Chelsea left back Graeme Le Saux – a father of two – continually received homophobic abuse, even by his fellow professionals including Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler. Another to suffer unsubstantiated homophobic abuse is
Grassroots If you are gay and want to play football at a grassroots level you at least have options. Several sides and societies support the LGBT community. The Gay Football Supporter's Network promotes the participation of gay men and women in football and runs a well-supported league. Arguably, the most successful of all gay sides is
What next? There are sporadic signs that attitudes are changing.
Cricket
Professional:
At the end of February 2011,
Grassroots Grace's was and still is the first openly gay cricket team in
What next? Steven Davies’s coming out was met with universal approval and he had the full backing and support of his teammates and the cricketing establishment. However, it still remains to be seen if any other professional cricketers will follow his brave example.
Professional: Perhaps surprisingly given its macho culture, rugby is probably the most gay-friendly of all the mainstream team sports. In recent years, the sport has had two major personalities coming out. The best known is Gareth Thomas. Thomas has thrown himself into the gay rights scene with gusto, leading to him being voted No 1 in the Independent’s Pink List for 2010. After recently appearing on the Ellen (DeGeneres) Show in San Francisco in front of a TV audience of several million, he commented: “I don't try and coax people to come out because it needs to be right for them as an individual but when I speak to some people I realise that the power and influence that famous sportspeople have is amazing. It shows that a positive message can change the world.” The other one is
Grassroots: There are a small number of gay rugby clubs in the
What next? Barriers have undoubtedly come down in the sport over recent years and it will be fascinating to see the reaction from gay and mainstream audiences if Gareth Thomas’s life story makes it into a
Tennis
Professional: Women’s tennis has had two of the greatest ever players coming out. Icons Billie Jean King, who was outed by an ex-lover, and Martina Navratilova, who was outed by a journalist, are both world-famous for their tennis brilliance. Navratilova claims she lost $12m in sponsorship deals, even though she has gone on record as saying she is far happier for it. In recent years, the two-time Grand Slam winner, Amelie Mauresmo outed herself in a newspaper interview. Given those precedents, when the next female player decides it’s right for them, the path has already been trodden. The men’s game has so far been less progressive with only Big Bill Tilden, the three-time winner of
Grassroots: Tennis in the LGBT community has a strong following, the most prominent of which is
What next? Women’s tennis is no stranger to lesbians in the locker room, so there is possibly less trepidation for gay tennis players than in other sports, but the men’s game has been less forthcoming. However, if a top10-ranking player did come out, there is an argument to say that it may not cause the media storm it would have in the past. Time will tell.
Golf
Professional: Again, like tennis, it’s the women’s game that has always been the most open to gay golfers, right back from when Babe Zaharias the closet-lesbian golf champion was winning titles in the Thirties. There are now several openly gay golfers on the US Tour; Rosie Jones, Muffin Spenser-Devlin and Patty Sheehan have all played the game since coming out without a negative reaction from the galleries on the fairways.
Grassroots: There are a number of clubs where gay golfers can hook up with similarly minded players. The Irons Gay Golf Society is a group of 60 or 70 members who meet up around the M25 for 18 holes and a pint at the 19th.
What next? It’s the women’s side of the game that has been making strides in being open about their sexuality, whereas on the men’s tour, players have been more reticent. One thing we know is that Tiger Woods is unlikely to become a gay role model any time soon.
Sports where it’s okay to be gay
Figure skating: From John Curry in the early Eighties and Matthew Hall in the Nineties to David Wilson in the Noughties, it’s long been acceptable to be gay on ice.
Diving: Most famously double Olympic gold-medal winner Greg Louganis came out, but he has since been followed by fellow gold medal winner Matthew Mitcham and former US captain, David Pichlar.
Swimming: Swimming has long been a sport which has been more accepting of athletes’ sexuality. The Olympic gold-medal winner Bruce Hayes, World Championship gold medallist Johan Kenkhuis and Mark Tewksbury, a Canadian swimmer, who has hosted the World Out Games, all came out while competing.
Pictured clockwise from left: Steven Davies, Matthew Mitcham, Justin Fashanu, Martina Navratilova
