Homosexuality in American Sports

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Homosexuality in American Sports Today
Are gay and lesbian athletes accepted in American Sports? Its’ hard to tell. Recently,
Michael Sam, and American football player for the University of Missouri, announced that
he is gay (Edholm, 2014). He will be eligible for the upcoming 2014 NFL draft in May.
This will make him the first openly gay NFL player in its history, which has sparked lots of
controversy in the news and all over ESPN. His announcement has had quite an impact on
his draft stock. He went from being a potential first round pick to now no one knows
where he might fall, because so many teams don’t want to take on the controversy and the
press, which leads me back to the question, are gay and lesbian athletes accepted in
American sports? Why would Sam’s draft stock change at all? His stats haven’t changed,
he hasn’t changed, and he still led the SEC in total number of sacks. The only thing that
has changed is his perceived gender by the media. Why would his announcement prior to
the draft affect his draft stock and why would it matter?
Michael’s coming out has nothing to do with the game of football and yet everything to do
with the game of football. Sports, and football in particular, is where masculinity is
defined. This raises the question: are gay people allowed to be masculine? It is thought that
gay men show feminine traits (the opposite of masculinity), but is this always the case, and
does this challenge the notion that masculinity is only for heterosexual males? And does
this challenge masculinity as a whole? I believe that many straight men feel like
masculinity, or what their perception of masculinity is, is being challenged when Michael
Sam came out and I believe this is why there is such a controversy.
Researchers agree that organized sports are highly homophobic. They believe this because
of the way that gay and lesbian (not so much lesbians) people are treated in sports. It is like
that because of the way that men see sports and the masculine and competitive qualities
that are derived from them. “Boys (in sports) learn early that to be gay, to be suspected of
being gay, or to be unable to prove one’s heterosexual status is not acceptable," (Anderson,
2002, 860). This is found widely around America’s organized sports, and because of this,
gay men are more likely to feel uncomfortable playing team sports. Sports (especially
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