I know what you are thinking, you like sports?! Why that's not gay at all. It's true, and say that as I sit here and watch game 2 of the Chicago Bulls/Miami Heat match-up. With the recent spate of coming out notices by sports figures (Rick Welts Phoenix Suns CEO, Will Sheridan former Villanova player, and so on) I thought it time to pronounce my outness with sports. Football, tennis, basketball (especially college), baseball but only the playoffs or at an actual game, otherwise, booorinng, golf, yes it's good to relax to. Not NASCAR, round and round, just waiting for a crash and not hockey, ugh fights on ice, I don't get it. I also follow the occasional college sports like lacrosse, soccer and my home team UNC. This enjoyment of sports is nothing new for me, it's pretty much how I grew up in the hotbed of ACC country (that's Atlantic Coast Conference) where rivalries between Duke, Carolina, State, Wake and all those others were what it was all about, particularly when it came to basketball, and it still is that way. To me there was nothing unnatural about it, it just was what it was.
My abilities with playing sports, however, was limited. I tried little league baseball but I pretty much sucked, well I could catch and throw but I just never mastered the batting. Even playing softball these days I can't hit worth crap. I'm more the defensive guy, same goes for basketball, I can guard ya' but my jump shot blows. The only sports I ended up gelling with were track and cross country. Yeah, yeah I know kind of a Front Runner stereotype but hey at least it wasn't swimming, that's really gay! Besides, when you are a little overweight and little fey the culture of sport in the South when I was growing up was overrun with a machismo that precluded anyone even the slightest bit different from being part of their club. The prejudices founded in ignorance run deep below the Mason Dixon Line, and lets face it they still do. I mean we are the same people who fly the Confederate flag and talk about The War (Civil War that is) like it only happened a few years ago. Change always seems slow to come to the South (something Civil Rights activists can attest to even today). Thus I shied away from the rough an tumble and latched onto a team sport that is also still very singular.
As a family we watched games, enjoyed the action, followed the playoffs, I never thought much about it. Till I went to college. Thats where I came out as the kids say and started hanging out with more gay folks and finding out that my sports thing wasn't shared by the majority of those around me. I usually went to the football and basketball games alone or with straight dorm mates. Now I'm not saying there weren't any sporty mo's around, just turned out the ones I hung around with weren't. So I kept my interest to myself. Not until I moved to Washington DC did I meet other guys who shared some similar interest in the playing field. From softball, to volleyball, to pick-up basketball, to bowling. (Yes bowling, it is a sport, mostly skill, but you try throwing a 14 pound ball 25 yards 60 times in a row all while trying to keep your arm straight and your ball hitting the pocket then see if you don't break a sweat.) There was even a parent organization called DC Sports for people to get together around. Though not everyone who played sports was always into watching and following them. Many men liked the socializing as much as the playing, but once they left the court so did their interest. And when I moved away to various other cities, the pool shrunk, immeasurably. Still to this day I don't really have any gay friends who follow sports quite like I do.
Particularly not the SO, but I try not to subject him to much of it, though he will go to Super Bowl parties with me at least. An added benefit of growing up surrounded by sports is that it did and still does give me and my father something to talk about. While he's come to grips with the being gay, sports gives a common ground instead of just prattling on about the weather and how it sucks getting older. Same goes for the SO's parents, his mothers into antiquing/shopping and his dad is into college football so I think I have an edge that I can have something to talk about or do with both of them. A win/win situation for everyone.
Attitudes of professional/college athletes are also changing too. For every C.J. Leslie there is a Sean Avery, Charles Barkley, and Donte Stallworth, to name a few. Plus with Grant Hill making an anti-bullying video and the SF Giants doing an It Gets Better video we have to think things are turning a corner. Hopefully one day an athlete in one of the big 3 sports--baseball, football, basketball--will take the plunge and come out while still playing. A sort of Jackie Robinson for the gay and lesbian folks who will draw more gays and lesbians to follow the sporting kind and all it's joys---just like me. We're here, we're queer, we drink beer! (Though not much anymore because it makes me bloated but you know what I mean.)
Answer to previous trivia post: Ireland 1992-1994
This weeks trivia question: What team has lost the most NBA Championship finals?
cheers
My abilities with playing sports, however, was limited. I tried little league baseball but I pretty much sucked, well I could catch and throw but I just never mastered the batting. Even playing softball these days I can't hit worth crap. I'm more the defensive guy, same goes for basketball, I can guard ya' but my jump shot blows. The only sports I ended up gelling with were track and cross country. Yeah, yeah I know kind of a Front Runner stereotype but hey at least it wasn't swimming, that's really gay! Besides, when you are a little overweight and little fey the culture of sport in the South when I was growing up was overrun with a machismo that precluded anyone even the slightest bit different from being part of their club. The prejudices founded in ignorance run deep below the Mason Dixon Line, and lets face it they still do. I mean we are the same people who fly the Confederate flag and talk about The War (Civil War that is) like it only happened a few years ago. Change always seems slow to come to the South (something Civil Rights activists can attest to even today). Thus I shied away from the rough an tumble and latched onto a team sport that is also still very singular.
As a family we watched games, enjoyed the action, followed the playoffs, I never thought much about it. Till I went to college. Thats where I came out as the kids say and started hanging out with more gay folks and finding out that my sports thing wasn't shared by the majority of those around me. I usually went to the football and basketball games alone or with straight dorm mates. Now I'm not saying there weren't any sporty mo's around, just turned out the ones I hung around with weren't. So I kept my interest to myself. Not until I moved to Washington DC did I meet other guys who shared some similar interest in the playing field. From softball, to volleyball, to pick-up basketball, to bowling. (Yes bowling, it is a sport, mostly skill, but you try throwing a 14 pound ball 25 yards 60 times in a row all while trying to keep your arm straight and your ball hitting the pocket then see if you don't break a sweat.) There was even a parent organization called DC Sports for people to get together around. Though not everyone who played sports was always into watching and following them. Many men liked the socializing as much as the playing, but once they left the court so did their interest. And when I moved away to various other cities, the pool shrunk, immeasurably. Still to this day I don't really have any gay friends who follow sports quite like I do.
Particularly not the SO, but I try not to subject him to much of it, though he will go to Super Bowl parties with me at least. An added benefit of growing up surrounded by sports is that it did and still does give me and my father something to talk about. While he's come to grips with the being gay, sports gives a common ground instead of just prattling on about the weather and how it sucks getting older. Same goes for the SO's parents, his mothers into antiquing/shopping and his dad is into college football so I think I have an edge that I can have something to talk about or do with both of them. A win/win situation for everyone.
Attitudes of professional/college athletes are also changing too. For every C.J. Leslie there is a Sean Avery, Charles Barkley, and Donte Stallworth, to name a few. Plus with Grant Hill making an anti-bullying video and the SF Giants doing an It Gets Better video we have to think things are turning a corner. Hopefully one day an athlete in one of the big 3 sports--baseball, football, basketball--will take the plunge and come out while still playing. A sort of Jackie Robinson for the gay and lesbian folks who will draw more gays and lesbians to follow the sporting kind and all it's joys---just like me. We're here, we're queer, we drink beer! (Though not much anymore because it makes me bloated but you know what I mean.)
Answer to previous trivia post: Ireland 1992-1994
This weeks trivia question: What team has lost the most NBA Championship finals?
cheers
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