The time is now. What are you waiting for?
Noted gay rights activist and former Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo.
Image by Ronald Martinez / Getty Images
Last week, reports surfaced that four currently closeted gay NFL players are considering coming out at some point soon, the idea being they'd announce together so as to avoid suffering backlash alone. Even rumors of this kind of movement are a good sign, but the longer these players wait, the more the story becomes a gossip hunt for the SECRET GAYS in the NFL and less about a transformative moment for the LGBT community. The longer they wait, the longer they give voice to people who wonder if they should even be doing this at all. The longer they wait, the more they signal to young gay people who love sports that coming out may not be the best idea. After all, if rich, successful athletes struggle to do it, how on Earth will you be able to?
This brings us to a simple an inescapable fact. A generation of young people need a gay Jackie Robinson. Someone that they can point to on SportsCenter and say, "Yeah, I'm gay, but so is he. And look what he can do." Someone who by their simple existence and athletic success can do more damage to playground homophobia, and the idea that masculinity and heterosexuality are one and the same, than a thousand PSAs. We need someone who, like Robinson, was good at what he did, but also willing to stand up to a backlash head-on. I you're a successful, closeted gay athlete, your time has come. But lest you think this is a suicide mission, there are a lot of very good reasons for you to do it.
Your soon-to-be allies have already gotten everyone used to the idea.
With vocal gay-rights advocates like Brendon Ayanbadejo and Chris Kluwe in the NFL, Brian Burke in the NHL, and Magic Johnson in the NBA (and now MLB as well, as a Dodgers part-owner), the world has been properly prepped for someone to come out. We've reached a point where the idea of a gay athlete is old news In fact, as the deluge of coverage given to the "four players considering coming out together" story showed, there's actually a hunger for it. "People aren't ready yet" isn't a valid excuse anymore. Fans and fellow players have had enough time to consider and re-consider how they should react to a gay player. They're ready as they're ever going to be, thanks to the names above. Are you?
Image by Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
You can dispel the "lost endorsement" fallacy and make $$$ doing so.
One age-old argument for players remaining in the closet is that it puts their endorsement dollars at risk. But the world was a very different place when this particular piece of prevailing wisdom took hold. That linked article was from 1994. That's before Rent. Before Six Feet Under and Will and Grace and Queer as Folk and The L Word and Ellen and Modern Family. Before all of Bravo. Before openly gay members of the military. Before members of congress didn't have to wait to be elected to come out (or be outed). Times are different now. Neil Patrick Harris is a huge star famous for playing a womanizing straight guy, and there's a good chance that he's singing a show tune somewhere at this very second. His face is everywhere. That would have seemed crazy twenty years ago, but makes perfect sense now. Similarly, I'd be willing to bet the number of companies today that want to align themselves with a history making athlete FAR outnumber those that would be scared off. 2013 is not 1994. I'm sure Nike has a "coming out" ad waiting in the drawer for a brave soul like you, Successful Closeted Gay Athlete, to step forward and put your name on it. Just do it already.
Image by Denis Farrell / AP