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Thursday, 18 September 2008 13:41 |
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This excerpt is from Chapter 25 of Bill Konigsberg's new novel, Out of the Pocket . Our protagonist, 17-year-old high school quarterback Bobby Framingham, has come out (not entirely on purpose). Because he is a sought-after college prospect, he’s become a national news story. After a trying first day at school, the second day is going better, in large part because of an article written by an LA Times sports writer.
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As I walked into homeroom, once again people applauded me. There on the wall I saw the big picture of me on the front of the Times sports section. It felt nice and I smiled. I finally read the article.
The Kids Are All Right
by Luke Hutchens
October 23, 2007
Los Angeles Times Sportswriter
The kids are all right.
They knew all along what we adults managed to completely miss, that the sports world had to reconcile its themes of fair play and inclusion with the stark reality that not one single openly gay man has ever actively competed in one of the four major American sports.
All of our great sports heroes, and the best we could do was a handful of brave men coming out after the fact, in retirement. Billy Bean. Dave Kopay. Esera Tuaolo. John Amaechi.
Shame on our sporting heroes, whom we love for their integrity as well as their prowess. Shame on their counterparts, the heterosexual sportswriters.
We have held the power. So why have none of us had the courage to say, “Something isn’t quite right here? Maybe the world we’ve created isn’t quite conducive to true diversity.”
No one said, “Of course there are gay men playing sports. They should be allowed to be open and honest. We should create an environment that will help them to be so.”
Instead it was a brave, talented seventeen-year-old quarterback named Bobby Framingham who decreed that he should have the right to be open with who he is – a homosexual—while playing quarterback for his Durango Bulldogs at an extremely high level.
Of course, it was not done by a professional athlete, with millions of dollars in salary and endorsements at stake (again, a system we adults screwed up), but by a member of this new generation of hipper, wiser kids who grew up with gay characters on TV, in movies.
They know, at seventeen, how important inclusion is and how hypocritical the current “gay is fine, just don’t tell me about it” model is.
And Framingham’s revelation will lead to another student athlete deciding to come out, and another. And soon it will be happening at the college level. Then, and only then, may we begin to bring the sports universe into the twenty-first century.
That’s the lesson we’re learning from this brave Bobby Framingham.
If only we’d known sooner.
Luke Hutchens thought I was a hero, and now everyone wanted to talk to me, and I thought about Dr. Blassingame, when he told me to change the world. It made me shiver.
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