Month: February 2009

Lesbian soccer player Eudy Simelane has become South Africa's Matthew Shepard. Her grisly murder last year, following torture and gang rape by several young men, has set off a tidal wave of outrage in South Africa. Simelane, who once played on South Africa's national women's team, has become the tragic icon for activists determined to […]

As soon as I saw 19-year-old Julio Osegueda ask President Obama a question Tuesday at a town hall meeting in Florida, I knew he was going to be a media hit (see video here). He was ultra-hyper and a bit goofy in an endearing way as he asked about getting benefits for his job at […]

The NBA seems committed to completely destroying what is already a meaningless event in its All-Star Game. Like the other three big leagues, the NBA tries to make it into a big party and surround it with a bunch of nonsense. The latest is a game of H-O-R-S-E that will be played between Kevin Durant, […]

At least that’s what the folks at Baseball Prospectus predict in their preseason baseball rankings. BP is a well-respected source for baseball lovers, which nailed Tampa’s rise last season by picking them to win 90+ games. Among the BP editors is stats genius (and total cutie) Nate Silver, whose brilliant political website fivethirtyeight.com was scary-good […]

From 1999 to 2002 there was a sexy after-dark show on MTV called "Undressed." It featured sex-based storylines and from time to time had two guys jumping in the sack with each other. I recently stumbled across one such episode on YouTube, and it brought back memories of the redundant storylines, terrible acting and fun-loving […]

So yeah, every sports channel you turn on now will probably have some talking head screaming at the top of his or her lungs at how much of a heel Alex Rodriguez is for allegedly testing positive for steroids. But one item that’s not being talked about that much is that the author of the […]

A few years ago, I wrote about our Diana Nyad’s attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida, which boggled the mind. These days, long-distance swimmers set their sights on bigger things. Now 59-year-old Jennifer Figge of Colorado says she is the first woman to swim the Atlantic. Well, almost. She started from the Cape Verde […]

One of the two wrestlers kicked off the University of Nebraska wrestling team after appearing naked on a gay porn site last year has rebounded nicely at his new school. Paul Donahoe transferred to Edinboro College in northwestern Pennsylvania, a wrestling powerhouse, and he is currently unbeaten (27-0 following his Feb. 14 victory) and the […]

For those of you in the Philadelphia area, there will be a panel discussion on Feb. 16 about homophobia in athletics. The event is sponsored by Penn Athletes and Allies Tackling Homophobia at the University of Pennsylvania, and the panelists will included coaches and even a former athletic director. More info after the jump. For […]

Minneapolis has been chosen as the site for the 2010 Bingham Cup, the biennial gay-rugby tournament that honors United 93 hero Mark Bingham and has become the equivalent of the gay rugby world cup. The host team is the Minneapolis Mayhem RFC. The choice of Minneapolis marks a sign of strength and growth for gay […]

We can count hundreds of gay-sports leagues all around the world today, but we should never take for granted the work that a few people did 30 and 40 years ago to set the stage for this explosion. One of those people was Jack McGowan, who died of heart ailments last month at the age […]

Telstra, Australia’s largest phone company, has signed openly gay Olympic gold medal diver Matthew Mitcham to a one-year deal. This is Mitcham’s first endorsement contract since the Olympics. While no dollar figure was disclosed, Mitcham said it would be a "significant" help as he trains for competitions, with his goal being a repeat gold medal-winning […]

Michael Phelps became the absolute happiest athelete on Earth yesterday when cnnsi.com reported that Alex Rodriguez allegedly tested positive for the steroid Primobolan in 2003 when he was a member of the Texas Rangers and also the year he won his first MVP award. Rodriguez had until now been relatively clean of steroid accusations (except […]

CBS picks gay collegiate rower to carry this season’s gay banner By Ross Forman On Feb. 12, Spencer Duhm will be the latest in a long line of openly gay participants in the show Survivor. And carrying on a piece of that tradition, he's also an athlete and sports fan. DUHM ON BEING GAY: He […]

Like me, lots of people are cringing every time they see the commercials Howie Long has cut for Chevrolet. There is so much wrong with these commercials, I will personally never buy a Chevy the rest of my days. The idea that you have to do certain things and be a certain way to be […]

Move over Marat Safin. Take a seat, Andy Roddick. Make way for tennis’ new hottest Tour player: Feliciano Lopez. Great hair, beautiful face, nice physique. The 27-year-old Spaniard has only one Tour singles title, and he has one doubles title with Fernando Verdasco. Interestingly, this past Australian Open he had played Gilles Muller in the […]

Those of us who are old enough will remember the old campaign for Morton’s salt: When it rains, it pours. This week that translates into multiple marijuana stories and a couple naked athlete escapades! The latest suspect is former NFL wide receiver Terry Glenn, who was arrested at an extended-stay hotel near Dallas last week […]

Joe Torre, then manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, wanted gay players to come out in 2009.

Six months after winning the gold medal in diving, Australian Matthew Mitcham still has yet to secure a major sponsorship or endorsement deal. We have written about this extensively on Outsports, but the issue came to the fore again with the profile of Mitcham in the current issue of the Advocate. There are two schools […]

Is there some rule that says you have to be mentally damaged to be an elite athlete? Yeah yeah, I know: Most elite athletes are smart enough not to get caught, but these fools who let themselves be recorded or photographed having sex, doing drugs and the like: Not smart at all. The latest is […]