Gay Athletes

[hvdude]

Luke Prokop and Carl Nassib just came out. Proudly and unabashedly.

Is society starting to realize that a man thought as "masculine" can be attracted to another man? That this attraction is completely natural and should be embraced/celebrated?

When will "coming out" not be a big deal and the words "I'm gay" not the cause of some drama?

For me Luke and Carl are simply expressing what is completely natural. And when they each win Stanley Cups or Vince Lombardy trophies I hope their husbands/boyfriends are right there with them. Clearly their teammates will be. Thoughts?

 

[Player_01]

It seems like with Luke and Carl to be less of an issue. It made a bit of a splash then the news moved on to something else.

I will say both waited until their contracts were signed before coming out. That cut down on some potential drama as Michael Sam had a hard time being drafted as an out gay man.

 

[palakaorion]

The NHL has had a You Can Play initiative for several years. The gist is, if you can play at an NHL level, then it doesn't matter what's in your pants, who you love, or who's in your bed. You Can Play.

We'll see now with Mr Prokop whether the league is prepared to back that up, or whether it's just a marketing slogan to draw in the pink dollars. I sincerely hope the league means it (even though Prokop was drafted by the loathesome Trashville Predators.)

Some articles are reporting that Prokop is the first gay NHLer. That is almost certainly not true. He may be the first *out* NHL player, but there's a zero percent chance he's the first gay NHL player ever.

 

[Sagittarius84]

I think there's an underlying thing here that parallels another thread talking about women's sports and sexual objectification.
The inherent hero worship that comes with sports is probably the biggest hurdle in coming out not being a big deal. Marketing sports is primarily marketing archetypes of admiration and attractiveness to a predominant fan base. Men's sports are mostly followed by straight men whom admire and vicariously live through physically(and sexually) idealized versions of themselves triumphing against opponents or the clock. Straight men, by in large, don't necessarily admire gay men nor do they want to vicariously live through them or their challenges because the reward certainly won't be an implied attractiveness to women. Take a sport like figure skating, for example, wherein straight men are not the predominant audience, and an athlete coming out is little to no big deal, if not already a previous assumption.