Just saw a preview for a 4-part special on Rogers Sportsnet (note: Rogers Communications which owns Sportsnet, also owns the Toronto Blue Jays), The Last Closet: Gay Athletes in Team Sports. In the commercial they showed Mark Tewskbury and Gumby Anderson being interviewed. Also found this media mention (scroll down).

Would have been nice if they at least got the spelling on Bean's name correct...

Particularly since Billy Beane is involved in baseball and, as far as I know, straight.

Time correction. The series will start today (Sunday August 21) at 7pm EST and again at 11pm EST during the normal sports news broadcast on Rogers Sportsnet.



[ August 21, 2005, 04:31 PM: Message edited by: canmark ]

OK,I looked but couldnt find this. Please give us the run down on what was said.

Part one (which repeats on the 11pm Sportsnetnews--it's only a 5-minute segment, I would say, and the 7pm sportsnews was delayed by the Red Sox-Angels game!) was kind of an overview. It mentioned the upcoming Outgames in Montreal. Had interviews with Mark Tewksbury and Eric "Gumby" Anderson. Also from a former NFL player (forgot his name) who was preaching about heterosexual marriage and whatnot (I guess they wanted to show a dissenting view). It continues tomorrow night. In the preview they showed Vernon Wells being quoted (basically he said it would be tough for a gay player, and he would need to be strong, etc.) and a CFL player (who I'm not familiar with).

Just saw the RSN segment. I've always liked Olympic swimming medallist (and native Calgarian) Mark Tewksbury for speaking up not only on the issue of gays in sports but also for his condemnation of IOC corruption during the Samaranch regime. Tewksbury believes there are gay players on major professional sports teams who are 'out' to their teammates (he specifically mentioned the NHL and NBA). The former NFL player that Canmark referred to is Ken Hutcherson, now a pastor who led an anti-gay marriage rally in Seattle last year (I think there was an Outsports thread about him). I recognized the CFL player right away, as he is currently QB of the Calgary Stampeders, Henry Burris. On the subject of a football player coming out of the closet, Burris said "it would be a tough situation to see somebody go through because I know what guys in football locker rooms are like." However, Professor Eric Anderson (who has appeared on Outsports) said he has seen a tremendous difference in the degree of acceptance since 1993 when he came out publicly. At the beginning of the segment there was a brief shot of the Boston Red Sox players who appeared on "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" earlier this year.

On a personal note, while I was in Peru on vacation a few months ago, I had the pleasure of hiking the Inca Trail with two professional (and very hunky!) rugby players from England (they play for the Bristol Sho-Guns). As it turned out, the Peruvian tour leader in the Cuzco-Lima portion of the trip was very openly gay (even though this was not a 'gay tour' at all) and he was constantly suggesting to them that they should experience gay culture and even kidded around that one of them is a closet case. Not the most professional conduct from the tour leader, but I was very impressed with how good-natured these guys were about the whole thing. Not once did these big guys ever get upset about it (and I'm sure they could have crushed the tour leader with their pinkies if they wanted to); in fact they willingly came along to a couple of the gay-friendly clubs. One of them acknowledged that there is still a lot of homophobia in rugby in England, but these guys certainly didn't fit that stereotype at all. And no, I had no reason to think either of them is gay, although I can always wish! Just thought I'd share this as a first-hand example of how attitudes are changing for the better among professional athletes.

Just saw Part 2, and who should be one of the feature interviews but our very own Cyd Ziegler! They also showed the current home page of Outsports (with Protest at Gay Day the lead story).

I was pleased to see the very up-to-date Outsports home page on TV, the interview clip with Cyd, AND a nice shot of him running down the field with a football. Also featured was Corey Johnson, the gay high school football player who made headlines a few years ago (and who is now a teammate of Cyd's in New York). Ed Gray (openly gay sports-writer for a Boston newspaper), Martina Navratilova, Jeff Pilon (another Calgary Stampeder!--this time an offensive lineman) also put in their two cents in today's segment.

Today the Toronto Star has a full-page article on gay athletes titled Rainbow Warriors, which quotes former minor league umpire (and Outsports board member) Tyler Hoffman, (Outsports contributor) Eric "Gumby" Anderson, and others.

Posted by jockboy admirer (Member # 3724) on October 23, 2005, 07:26 AM:

Question, and maybe it's an overly obvious one - In this day and age, could an openly gay umpire [on active duty] survive at any level - high school, college, minor leagues, major league baseball? I say no.

In the new ESPN, there's an article on the close friendship between Cuttino Mobley and Steve Francis, that's hinting around the edges of what I believe pro outer and radio personality Wendy Williams claimed a few years ago, which is that they were a couple. (It discusses their buying matching furs and outfits, etc., which is really so high school, but hey, who am I to criticize young love.) When Mobley was traded, Francis had a very histrionic, public breakdown, and talked about sharing a house, etc., with his lov...close friend. It's something that most...some...a few straight guys would get hysterical about, right?

From the issue:

Yeah, alright, okay....

[ October 30, 2005, 12:35 PM: Message edited by: fantomas ]