Month: November 2010

Rugby player Gavin Henson caused a stir in Britain when he kissed judge Bruno Tonioli during this week’s “Strictly Come Dancing.” Tonioli, an Italian dancer turned choreographer, is openly gay. Wrote the Daily Telegraph: The hitherto personality-free rugby player-cum-terracotta pot raced over to the judges’ table during his quickstep to kiss judge Bruno Tonioli, who […]

Before we give thanks later this month, we talk on our latest podcast about what bugs us in sports. We discuss the complaints we get from readers about topics we put on our blog. Also, the officiating in the NFL has gotten off to a false start this year. And then, of course, there’s the […]

Is it an apology or a non-apology? The head of the Croatian Football Federation Vlatko Markovic has issued an underwhelming statement following his claims last week that gays don’t play soccer because the sport is only played by “healthy people.” According to the Agence France-Presse: “I apologise to all those who were hurt by parts […]

Kye Allums’ recent coming out was incredibly well-received by most in the media. Of course, there are the occasional jerks like Michael Medved who have no interest in understanding and whose only objective is to be a raging asshole. Medved states in a blog post: An insane level of political correctness recently dictated that George […]

Wrestler Hudson Taylor is trying to get as many athletes as possible to show up for a NoH8 photo shoot, Monday Nov. 22 from 6 to 9 p.m. in Hoboken, N.J. Taylor, an assistant wrestling coach at Columbia, is one of the volunteer organizers for the shoot and describes the goal: The shoot is a […]

Queers4Gears founder Michael Myers Queers4Gears, the website for gay NASCAR fans, got a cool front page writeup in the Sunday New York Times Sports section, which focused on the site getting a group discount for tickets to Sunday's race in Phoenix. The deal, which is available to anyone through Queers4Gears, is among about 200 group […]

The “It Gets Better” project keeps growing, with more and more videos added each day. We have posted some sports-related videos (links below). Here are three more — the New York FrontRunners, the San Francisco Fog rugby and Seattle Quake rugby. The “It Gets Better” project keeps growing, with more and more videos added each […]

Kye Allums’ first game as an openly transgender man ended in disappointment as his team lost to Wisconsin-Green Bay, 75-51, in the Best Buy Classic. The tournament is being held in Minneapolis, near Allums’ childhood home. Allums played 15 minutes and racked up 1 rebound and 1 assist. "Kye played pretty well," Allums' head coach […]

Athletes have returned to the Out 100 this year. Figure skating phenom Johnny Weir graces the pages with quite possibly his most feminine photo yet (if that’s possible) as Out’s “Diva of the year.” And former college lacrosse captain Andrew McIntosh (right), who came out publicly here at Outsports, also made the list. And on […]

Bill Romanowski As part of the debut of "Out. The Glenn Burke Story," Comcast SportsNet Bay Area had a series of panels discussing the issues of gays in sports (see whole list). I watched a panel with former NFL players Bill Romanowski and Loreno Neal, along with sportswriter Ray Ratto. It was a good discussion, […]

High school football player Coy Sheppard is back on his team after his coach kicked him off the team for wearing pink cleats. He wore the cleats to bring awareness to the fight against breast cancer; The cleats were the gift of his 82-year-old great grandmother, and he wore them in honor of his grandmother, […]

As Kye Allums heads home with his George Washington University basketball team for the Best Buy Classic, his mother claims she has received death threats because of Kye’s revelation that he is transgender. In an interview with the St. Paul Pioneer-Press, Rolanda Delamartinez claims she fears for the safety of her family. “Perhaps Minnesota is […]

New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan made way at a press conference this week for his brother Rob, who is the defensive coordinator for the Jets’ Week 10 opponents, the Cleveland Browns. Oh, wait, that’s not Rob, that’s…wow, in that sweatshirt-that-doubles-for-a-dress, I could have sworn he was trying to look like his sister. Either […]

It’s early November, and that means the stores are decorating for Christmas. This year, Blake Skjellerup is getting a jump on the holiday by writing an early letter to Santa Claus. In the letter, the Olympic skater asks Saint Nick to help make his home country of New Zealand, and the rest of the world, […]

Bravo to German soccer player Mario Gomez for encouraging gay soccer players to come out publicly. It would help their careers, the 25-year-old says in an interview with Die Zeit. They would then play as though they’d been unshackled,” Gomez told magazine Bunte. “Being gay hasn’t been a taboo topic for a while.” Bravo to […]

The NHL made a really cool decision regarding its Jan. 30 All-Star game in Raleigh, N.C. — the captains of the two teams will pick their teams from among all the All-Stars selected. Just like when they were kids on the schoolyard (or rink in this matter). Why this hasn't been done until now is […]

While many have believed that a transgender female-to-male athlete cannot have gender-reassignment surgery and still play women’s sports, the NCAA has clarified that there is nothing preventing those athletes from doing so: As discussions continue and after further review of this topic at the national office, generally speaking a female who wants to be socially […]

NCAA clarifies its position on transgender eligibility vis-à-vis surgery and hormone treatment By Cyd Zeigler The NCAA has clarified conflicting statements made in the last two weeks concerning the ability for transgender athletes to undergo gender-reassignment surgery and keep their NCAA eligibility. NCAA spokesperson Erik Christianson relayed the clarification in an email to Outsports Monday […]

Note: There is a deadline of Nov. 15 to enter this contest. English rugby player Ben Cohen, popular among Outsports readers for embracing his gay fan base, is out with a 2011 calendar. See below for some photos and how you can win a signed copy of the calendar. A photo shoot for the calendar […]

In yet another example of the rampant homophobia in European sports, Croatian Football Federation president Vlatko Markovic has said gays are not welcome in his league. "While I'm a president of the Croatian Football Federation, there will be no homosexuals playing in the national team", Vlatko Markovic said in an interview with Croatian national daily […]