Center of Attention

John Amaechi, former NBA player, is about to have a book published where he discusses his sexual orientation. Were he straight, this might not merit much discussion. However, he's the first NBA player to come out as gay.

To date, no NBA, NFL, or MLB player has come out of the closet while they have been an active player. It's happened in individual sports, most notably tennis (interesting how you never hear of openly gay athletes), especially Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King, but to a lesser extent, Amelie Mauresmo and Gigi Fernandez. Notice that it's women's tennis. Despite the individual nature of tennis, there hasn't been any prominent out male professional player. The most well-known gay in men's tennis was Big Bill Tilden, and that was from an era gone by.

Even as society in general has become more tolerant of gays (although religious conservatives use it as a wedge issue to make conservatives come out to the polls and vote), athletes have generally been more conservative. Part of it is the rather intimate nature of team sports, where patting guys on the butt, and showering with other men hint at Roman-style hedonism and Greek-style amour.

Worse still, African American males probably suffer more from fear of homosexuality than whites, combining two attitudes that often seem at odds: the desire to be strong, and the fear of being weak. Thus, intimidation is used to hide insecurity.

As players go, John Amaechi is not only practically unknown, but also practically European. Although he lived in the US, he was raised in Britain as a youth, before moving, and has kept some British mannerisms, so anything approaching "gay" could be chalked up to being European, which many Americans are willing to admit are practically gay anyway (metrosexual being the closest equivalent).

Amaechi hardly fits the atheletic stereotype, preferring tea, museums, poetry, and a touch of classical music.

His story always raises the question: who will be the first athlete to come out gay in one of the major American sports? The media would love it to be a big time name, like Derek Jeter in baseball, or Tim Duncan in basketball, or Peyton Manning in football. The likelihood is that it's going to be someone like Amaechi, if for no other reason, than stats show that maybe 1-5% of the population would consider themselves gay (and perhaps another 5% is receptive to the idea were less stigma associated with it). The odds seem against a top athlete being gay (though one could argue that without the distractions of a relationship, one could concentrate on sports).

I can only think of a few top athletes that are gay. Greg Louganis is perhaps the most prominent, as he was the best diver in the world at one point. It's all the more amazing that he focused so well on diving given that he was involved in an abusive relationship. Martina, of course, was number 1 for a while. Mauresmo was also number 1 (but these days, any non-American player is hardly known in the US).

The last prominent announcement by a former athlete was Esera Tuaolo, and he had to go to some lengths to hide his sexuality, to the point he'd surround himself with women. It's not clear Amaechi did anything of the sort, and so it says something either about basketball or Amaechi or progress that Amaechi did not have to do what Tuaolo felt he had to to avoid questions.

What will be interesting is to hear how sports commentary deals with it. Either they will ignore it if they oppose the idea, or they will support Tuaolo. The folks who say they're uncomfortable and so forth are likely not to air their opinions.

It's ultimately surprising how attitudes, although evolving, still have not changed as fast as one would hope.