Month: March 2011

Emma Delsohn plays basketball at a Catholic girls school and feared what her coming out would mean. She tells about her journey of self-acceptance and team-acceptance. By Emma DeIsohnFor Outsports.com I remember sitting in the kitchen late one night, with my mother and my father sitting at the table. My youngest sister was still oblivious […]

Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Tyler says the players union would support an openly gay player, but they would have trouble protecting him from fans. While we have made massive improvement in crowd behaviour, it would still be a very, very brave move for a player to come out. If anybody comes out it […]

The King of the Hardwood hot jock voting continues in Round 1 and I am surprised to see openly gay rugby player Gareth Thomas trailing with one day left in the voting. Thomas is losing to U.S. decathlete Trey Hardee. Update: Hardee won by the narrowest of margins: Hardee 50.1% – Thomas 49.9%. I had […]

Ryan Kopacsi Virginia Commonwealth is one of the surprise teams in the NCAA men's basketball Sweet 16, having been one of the final entries into the expanded field. VCU also has a pep band that goes to every game with a band leader, Ryan Kopacsi, who likes to do a partial strip, not a surprise […]

The story of openly gay Swedish soccer player Anton Hysen continues to get a lot of play in England since he is the only out pro player in his sport. In a terrific BBC radio piece by Tim Franks, we hear Hysen, 20, describe his reaction to his first piece of hate mail. I just […]

Ross Forman at the Windy City Times has a recent piece about newly appointed Hawaiian Supreme Court judge Sabrina Shizue McKenna. In addition to being one of the first openly gay person to serve on the state’s highest court. McKenna’s also familiar with another kind of court, having played for the University of Hawaii women’s […]

The WWE is finally trying to catch up to TNA wrestling. After decades of gay-baiting and homophobic slurs by WWE executives, writers and wrestlers, the nation's most-watched pro wrestling group now claims it is against "discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation," in response to outreach by GLAAD. Forgive me if I'm doubtful. You don't […]

I did not watch any regular season men’s college basketball but did watch a fair amount of the tournament the past four days. I had not realized the quality of the sport had dropped so much. Jay Bilas on ESPN said it is one of the weakest fields he’s seen in years, owing to college […]

While most people saw Louisville’s loss to Morehead State as nothing more than a loss in their bracket, gay fans have a special reason to cheer. 13th-seeded Morehead State’s Kenneth Faried, a top NBA prospect, earlier this year revealed his mother is a lesbian; And he had nothing but wonderful things to say about her, […]

I continue to be impressed with Craig Cassey, the Pennsylvania high school track athlete whose blog, Craig’s Gay Word, is a must-read for anyone interested in what it’s like be a gay teen athlete. His latest post lists three reasons to come out to your coach. It may seem unimaginable, why would you want to […]

We've written about it here over the last few months, and now GLSEN is officially launching its Sports Project, 'Changing The Game.' The initiative is designed to combat homophobia in K-12 sports by opening conversations in schools and on teams about the issue. The project's Web site provides resources for athletes, coaches and administrators to […]

Swedish soccer pro Anton Hysen, who came out as gay a week ago, says he is picky when it comes to having a boyfriend. For one, the guy has to like sports. He told Charlie Wyett in a terrific Q&A in the London Sun: I have never had a boyfriend. I am having trouble with […]

Outsports has set up a pool for the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament. Fill out your bracket and see how you do against other Outsports readers. We are using CBS Sportsline this season. For the first two rounds, you will get the seed of the winner added to your points, which will reward correct upset […]

British rugby player Ben Cohen has announced the launching of his Ben Cohen Acceptance Tour scheduled for April and May of this year. The tour is designed to bring awareness to, and raise money to fight, homophobia in sports. The tour will start in England in April and will end with appearances in Atlanta, New […]

We hear it every time this year. Waaaaah. Waaaaaaaaaaaah. All the way from Bristol, Conn., the rest of the country can hear Dick Vitale and countless other commentators whining because so-and-so didn’t get into the men’s basketball tournament…despite the NCAA adding three more spots this year! You can see Vitale’s annual whining fit after the […]

Jonathan Correia Jonathan Correia is a 17-year-old sophomore high school wrestler from East Providence, R.I. In a sign of support for gay rights, he wore a sticker for the Human Rights Campaign on his headgear during matches and practices this season. Jonathan was inspired by the same gesture made by then-University of Maryland wrestler Hudson […]

Cristiano Ronaldo Voting has started in the 2011 King of the Hardwood contest, run by longtime Outsports poster Mariner Duck Guy. The premise is simple: 64 jocks in eight brackets similar to the NCAA tournament. Pick your favorite each round until we have a winner. This year, the "regions" are being divided by sport. In […]

The International Skating Union announced today the postponement and potential cancellation of this year’s World Figure Skating Championships. The reason: They were supposed to take place in Tokyo next week and nobody thinks that’s a good idea. Former skater Chad Conley (right) told me the chances of the ISU being able to move the event […]

Think Gareth tackles like a queen? You think Hugh Grant has heard of Gareth Thomas? The actor over the weekend offered some insight he learned in his time playing rugby as a kid: I discovered it hurt less if you tackled hard than if you tackled like a queen. My question is, what should he […]

The Guardian ran a piece about newly out soccer player Anton Hysen and his famous soccer-playing father, Glenn, this weekend. The article discusses Glenn’s speech at a pride festival in 2007 and an incident that happened about 10 years ago that left some gay people calling Hysen’s father “homophobic”… The former Liverpool defender Glenn Hysen […]