FEMALE PRO BASKETBALL STAR COMES OUT: SHE SHOOTS AND SCORES
By Jerome Cleary
When a professional athlete comes out in 2005, it is still big news. So when professional basketball star Sheryl Swoopes came out last week, she fortunately was also a three-time most valuable player of the WNB. Two things that spurred Ms. Swoopes coming out were an endorsement she received from a lesbian cruise line and being tired of having to pretend to be straight.
Though in today’s world coming out with a six-figure Nike endorsement deal, having your supportive lesbian partner by your side and having a multi-million-dollar work contract makes it a bit easier. It’s the average-paid lesbian Jane or gay Joe who may not have a great paying job and not a supportive partner by their side who have it the hardest to come out and be out.
Ms. Swoopes was also one of the original marquee players in the Women's National Basketball Association and is the first woman to have a Nike shoe named after her. She is a forward for the Houston Comets and is the first high-profile African-American basketball player ever to come out.
But what is the real impact of her coming out going to have on other professional athletes, the ones who still live in fear as closeted gays and lesbians? It’s no secret that professional male athletes have to face a slightly different standard. We all know that closeted gay men in professional sports have to live in a macho aggressive homophobic world. These gay athletes have had to pretend to be straight and laugh along at the same derogatory demeaning anti-gay jokes in the locker room to blend in.
It has long been society’s standard that two women sexually together are much more acceptable and palatable than for heterosexual men and society to imagine two gay men making love or having sex.
Many of us have seen the repeated TV sketches, jokes and film comedies that make light of men being gay or homos that outweigh the lesbian directed humor. When have we not heard someone say, “That is so gay”? Or, “So if I do this, I’ll be gay?” Or even, “I’ll end up being a homo”? The payoff is usually guaranteed since it brings giggles and laughs. It makes the mass majority think and remember that being gay is weird, wrong or strange.
The real turning point in society will be when these words do not carry any connotation, though at this point that may be many more years away since racial epitaphs are still used today and end up inducing violence.
How many parents still storm PTAs, elementary schools and colleges denouncing any material or groups or club meetings that do not have heterosexuals and straight families in mind?
Even the Bush Administration was able in the last election to turn possible gay marriage in to an anti-family demonic plague and mix in enough Christian religion for the religious right to galvanize voters to vote straight pro-family values.
I am still amazed as I watch the news, TV shows, listen to the radio or read in the newspaper just how far we have come and how far we still need to go.
Just the other day a friend related to me another parent’s dilemma that their son may be gay. It was not that their son may be a bank robber, a rapist, a drug dealer or heroin user — but that he may be gay. Of course, it is natural for any parent to want their son or daughter to have the best chance for a successful life that is not burdened with difficulties.
But many of us already know that it does not matter whether you are heterosexual or homosexual since one’s lifestyle or love choices do not guarantee a completely blissful and trouble-free life.
Jerome Cleary is an actor, writer and comic at The World Famous Comedy Store-www.freecomedytickets.com and can be reached at: jeromeclearytalk@aol.com
When a professional athlete comes out in 2005, it is still big news. So when professional basketball star Sheryl Swoopes came out last week, she fortunately was also a three-time most valuable player of the WNB. Two things that spurred Ms. Swoopes coming out were an endorsement she received from a lesbian cruise line and being tired of having to pretend to be straight.
Though in today’s world coming out with a six-figure Nike endorsement deal, having your supportive lesbian partner by your side and having a multi-million-dollar work contract makes it a bit easier. It’s the average-paid lesbian Jane or gay Joe who may not have a great paying job and not a supportive partner by their side who have it the hardest to come out and be out.
Ms. Swoopes was also one of the original marquee players in the Women's National Basketball Association and is the first woman to have a Nike shoe named after her. She is a forward for the Houston Comets and is the first high-profile African-American basketball player ever to come out.
But what is the real impact of her coming out going to have on other professional athletes, the ones who still live in fear as closeted gays and lesbians? It’s no secret that professional male athletes have to face a slightly different standard. We all know that closeted gay men in professional sports have to live in a macho aggressive homophobic world. These gay athletes have had to pretend to be straight and laugh along at the same derogatory demeaning anti-gay jokes in the locker room to blend in.
It has long been society’s standard that two women sexually together are much more acceptable and palatable than for heterosexual men and society to imagine two gay men making love or having sex.
Many of us have seen the repeated TV sketches, jokes and film comedies that make light of men being gay or homos that outweigh the lesbian directed humor. When have we not heard someone say, “That is so gay”? Or, “So if I do this, I’ll be gay?” Or even, “I’ll end up being a homo”? The payoff is usually guaranteed since it brings giggles and laughs. It makes the mass majority think and remember that being gay is weird, wrong or strange.
The real turning point in society will be when these words do not carry any connotation, though at this point that may be many more years away since racial epitaphs are still used today and end up inducing violence.
How many parents still storm PTAs, elementary schools and colleges denouncing any material or groups or club meetings that do not have heterosexuals and straight families in mind?
Even the Bush Administration was able in the last election to turn possible gay marriage in to an anti-family demonic plague and mix in enough Christian religion for the religious right to galvanize voters to vote straight pro-family values.
I am still amazed as I watch the news, TV shows, listen to the radio or read in the newspaper just how far we have come and how far we still need to go.
Just the other day a friend related to me another parent’s dilemma that their son may be gay. It was not that their son may be a bank robber, a rapist, a drug dealer or heroin user — but that he may be gay. Of course, it is natural for any parent to want their son or daughter to have the best chance for a successful life that is not burdened with difficulties.
But many of us already know that it does not matter whether you are heterosexual or homosexual since one’s lifestyle or love choices do not guarantee a completely blissful and trouble-free life.
Jerome Cleary is an actor, writer and comic at The World Famous Comedy Store-www.freecomedytickets.com and can be reached at: jeromeclearytalk@aol.com
posted by JeromeCleary @ 7:35 PM
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