Gay Sportsman Comes Out

[FredPuli43]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/sports/basketball/nba-center-jason-collins-comes-out-as-gay.html?hp&;_r=0

The first active player in any major American team sport to say that he is homosexual has just announced the fact in print. Others have come out but waited until their retirement to do so.

When and why do you think any equivalent British player will do the same ?( "Why?" is more interesting than "When?")

[society]

lol LazuGun. Don't forget that Sqad is a doctor. :)

[Sqad]

LazyGun

\\\As for women getting their mammary glands out- I would have thought you would have been the very last person to complain :) \\\

LOL...only an academic scientist could call them ..."Mammary Glands"

\\A symptom implies a disease - is that how you view liberated society Sqad? :)\\\

There you go again.......no, symptom doesn't necessarily imply a disease and no, that is not how i view society.

\\\Are gays really oppressing you with their public flamboyance? \\\

I have never said that they are "oppressing " me......just that in my opinion "flamboyancy" seemed to be a manifestation of our modern society.

[jim360]

Very possibly it is. It might just be that at the moment we are going through a reactionary phase in Society. Within some people's memories homosexuality was illegal -- now it is not but some people still haven't quite got over the fact. In a generation or so's time, maybe, things will have changed so that nobody cares any more and a sportsman coming out as gay will no longer be international news. Maybe, too, there will be no need for "gay pride" events as there is no reason to feel oppressed.

That's the ideal world, and we are not there yet at all. If we ever will be. Even now women still sometimes don't get paid the same money for the same job as men. That's also shocking. I long, anyway, for a world where someone being gay isn't news. Because no-one will care, and no-one will mind.

[sp1814]

society

"Why do people need to or have to announce their sexual preference? Is it to say I am interested in only 'this' particular gender or sex?"

Because if they didn't, dating people would be a nightmare.

"Oh, that was a lovely meal, and I really enjoyed the film, but I don't think we could ever have a relationship"

"Why not?"

"Can't say".

[sp1814]

society

JTH make a good point there.

There was no reason to come out as straight was there?

[ummmm]

It made me lol.

[magsmay]

think I may have got the wrong end of the stick here -call it a blonde moment - ;-) -When i was referring to 'coming out' i was meaning a celebrity/sportsman going Public -with a capital P -telling the general public. Explaining to friends and family you are Gay in my opinion is probably more like confirming what they thought for a while. - I would never condone not telling anyone -that would cause repressive behaviour - my comments were based on someone 'going public' -telling everyone -even those people to whom it would mean nothing at all.
'

[sp1814]

magsmay

I know someone who works for a big national daily.

When a celebrity 'comes out', it is rarely ever a case of "Hi world...I'm gay".

Normally, it comes up during an interview, and it's not a static statement like that. It will be someone referring to their boyfriend (if they are male) or girlfriend (if they are female).

The interviewer will then ask, "Oh, so you're gay?"

They will respond, and then that becomes the headline, "So and so confirms that they are gay", which people then interpret as "shouting it from the rooftops".

The other situation will be when someone is prompted by a newspaper to come out because they are going to publish a salacious story anyway.

Very, very, very few celebrities run to the newspapers to announce that they are gay.

My mate is the entertainments editor of a national newspaper.

He knows.