Not sure which thread this goes into, gay local sports or gays in sports, or even golf, but here's my two cents.

As Jim and Cyd mentioned on the front page, the Rainbow Links or something like that was profiled in the golf extra section of Sports Illustrated this week. This profile was in the SI that I got, so it's not a separate insert or anything.

Horrible. So wrong in so many words. Basically my displeasure came down to three things. One, the quote of something the lines of "Oh yeah, no flamers here." Way to represent yourself well in a nation manstream magazine. Hate yourself much? Second, there was a bit about some other golfers saying fag or something near the clubhouse. And rather than stick up for themselves, they ran to their cars and drove off. I'm all for safety, but we're not talking a dark alley with lead pipes here. Finally, there was something along the lines of golf will be the last sport with a out person. Because its so masculine. WHAT? Get a clue, golfers. Somehow I think that professional football, basketball or hockey will be the last to have an out player. Golf may have its traditions, but you're not going to have someone purposely breaking your leg because you are gay in golf.

Granted, I realize that a lot of this may have been in the editing and the writing, but still. I was horrified at the profile and have no respect for these people. I generally find that if you're not comfortable with yourself, others won't either.

Sorry, but I thought it was a terrific article, especially for a mainstream sports mag like SI. As to your specific critcisms, the "flamers" remark struck me as meant-to-be-humorous, but even if it was serious, well, maybe there are no flamboyant types in the group. As I recently pointed out in the "Out Pro Athletes" thread, gay jocks tend to be atypical. It tends to be one of the things that bonds gay athletes -- the fact that they are not only outsiders in the straight world, but in the gay world as well.

Secondly, these people are in Columbus friggin' Ohio... not all of us are lucky enough to live in big cities where it's easy to say "screw you" to the unenlightened. I would argue that (relatively speaking) these folks are far more impressive than say, crossdressers in San Francisco (where drag queens are a dime-a-dozen)... or gay govenment workers in DC.

Finally, you make it sound like they ran away at the mere hint of a homophobic remark, which was not the impression I got. But what did you want? A fistfight in the clubhouse?

[ June 25, 2003, 01:04 PM: Message edited by: RGMike ]