I would not consider sport to be a safe place for LGBT
individuals. There are a few reasons
that this is true. The first reason is
that our culture, mainly because of the media, makes too big of a deal about
LGBT athletes. There is absolutely no
reason why LGBT people should be excluded from sports. Even the most right wing conservatives would
be hard pressed to come up with an explanation.
Just this
morning when I turned on the television to sports center, I was confronted with
the recent news that yet another athlete has come out to be openly gay. This story involved a college athlete that
plays basketball at University of Massachusetts. I am not surprised that it is difficult for
athletes to come out of the closet and admit that they are openly gay to their
family and teammates. However, I am
surprised that a college athlete was mature enough to tell the people around
him that he is gay. I would expect this
from a professional athlete, but I am impressed that this college athlete had
the courage to come out.
The NFL is
even having the same “issue” with athletes that are open gay. I feel like this is only an issue because the
media and professional sports organizations are making it an issue. Personally, I don’t care what sexual
orientation the athletes have that I watch on television. It’s really too bad that the media, professional
sports organizations, and American culture as a whole is homophobic and obsessed
with violence.
I agree: the media does a terrible job with this. Our society is so closed minded sometimes and they are stuck in their own ways and refuse to accept these types of things.
ReplyDelete- Arely
I think as a whole the professional sports world is actually more accepting of gay athletes than people think. The athletes speaking out against gays are the ones who are highlighted on ESPN because it makes for a great headline, but overall I feel the average player doesn't mind as long as it does not affect him/her. So as far as the actual game is concerned I think gays are ok but I will definitely agree that the media turns it into something that it is not.
ReplyDelete-Austin Cannell