Month: April 2011

The Associated Press ran a detailed feature on gays in sports, with the focus on Eastern Michigan runner Austin Hendrix. I had spoken to the writer, Nancy Armour, and she had found Austin’s terrific coming out story on Outsports that ran in December. His journey was used in the AP story to illustrate the struggles […]

In a first, an athlete in the King of the Hardwood is soliciting votes. The voting ends Thursday and rugby player Nick Youngquest trails the NFL's Eric Decker, 55% to 45%. Youngquest just heard about the contest and sent us messages via Twitter, including this one: I think its cool the Youngquest gets the spirit […]

Thursday is the deadline to vote in the final round in the 2011 King of the Hardwood contest, pitting Eric Decker of the Denver Broncos (top) and rugby player Nick Youngquest. In voting so far, Decker has a 54.5% to 45.5% lead. If the lead holds, it would break a three-year run by rugby players. […]

The biggest news since we last checked in with Kobe Bryant might be that Bryant allegedly told ESPN reporter Lisa Salters he used to beat up kids for teasing gay students, and that he intends to do more on the issue. From Towleroad: I used to beat up a lot of kids even in high […]

Openly gay college swimmer Kevin Rohle finds that humor and perseverance have a gone a long way to fitting in on his team at Adelphi Unversity on New York’s Long Island. Rohle is the subject of a terrific profile in Garden City Patch, where he talks about his career goal of being a nurse. “People […]

More great news out of college hockey. GForce is again teaming up with Patrick Burke to present a conversation, this time at the American Hockey Coaches Convention, April 28-May 1 in Naples, Fla. The panel discussion features Burke, out former Oneonta State lacrosse captain Andrew McIntosh, and out former Univ. of Pennsylvania hockey captain Dave […]

The minor league hockey team Hershey Bears in Pennsylvania are saying no to homophobic taunting from their own fans, all because a lesbian fan had had enough. From GLAAD: The incidents were brought to the team’s attention by Bears fan Abigail Habbert. Habbert and her partner are season ticket holders, and noticed in January that […]

The International Association of Athletics Federations, track & field’s governing body, is changing some hormone-based rules to determine whether women can compete against other women. According to the new guidelines (in very basic terms), women with hyperandrogenism whose testosterone levels approach those of men would not be allowed to compete as a woman. There are […]

The Brazilian volleyball team Sada Cruzeiro was fined $30,000 after 3,000 of its fans chanted “bicha” (faggot) at Michael, a gay player for Volei Futuro, during an April 2 playoff match. The story became huge news in Brazil after the crowd's action, which led Michael to come out publicly. In the second game of the […]

We’re proud to bring you today the stories of two men at liberal arts college Bowdoin College. Lacrosse captain Ben Chadwick has been out on his team for over two years; Men’s head tennis coach Colin Joyner has been out for even longer. Both men have come together to tear down walls of homophobia in […]

Colin Joyner and Ben Chadwick are tearing down walls of homophobia at rural liberal arts school in Maine

Friday was the national Day of Silence, where students across the country took a vow of silence to bring attention to bullying and other harassment of LGBT youth. Craig Cassey, whose blog, Craig’s Gay Word, we have featured before, has an excellent post up about what the day meant for him, now that he is […]

Just like Tim Hardaway’s “I hate gay people” years ago opened the door to opportunities, so has Kobe Bryant’s “fucking faggot” slur. GLAAD today has a joint statement with the Los Angeles Lakers and is announcing a cooperation with the NBA to undermine homophobia. Lakers spokesman John Black said: What happened in Tuesday night's game […]

$100,000. That’s the new baseline for yelling “faggot” in the NBA, based on the fine issued to Kobe Bryant. (Does this mean that “fag” gets you 50K?) As far as I can gather, that’s the largest fine in American major pro sports for someone uttering a gay slur. True, it should have been more and […]

The Advocate released their annual Forty Under 40 this week. The list highlights the work of LGBT people under 40 who are making a difference. It was cool to see several people on the list that had gotten their initial introduction to the U.S. here at Outsports: Wrestler Akil Patterson (right), speed skater Blake Skjellerup […]

The NBA has fined Kobe Bryant $100k for calling referee Bennie Adams a “fucking faggot” during their game last night. NBA commissioner David Stern released this statement: Kobe Bryant’s comment during last night’s game was offensive and inexcusable. While I’m fully aware that basketball is an emotional game, such a distasteful term should never be […]

The Los Angeles Lakers posted this statement from Kobe Bryant after he called a referee a “faggot” in last night’s game: What I said last night should not be taken literally. My actions were out of frustration during the heat of the game, period. The words expressed do NOT reflect my feelings towards the gay […]

According to TMZ, the NBA is reviewing tape of Kobe Bryant’s homophobic tirade at last night’s Spurs-Lakers game. Athletes clearly have not gotten the message that this language is not okay: The only appropriate course of action at this point would be to suspend Bryant for a playoff game. We’ve learned athletes don’t learn from […]

TNT cameras stayed on Kobe Bryant a little too long after a technical foul during last night’s Lakers-Spurs game. They followed Bryant to the bench where he went into a mini tirade, punching a chair (and a teammate in the process), throwing a towel and then yelling out what certainly looks like, “Bennie…fucking faggot.” That’s […]

Last week we told you about the awful incident where 3,000 fans at a Brazilian pro volleyball playoff match taunted a gay player, Michael, with “faggot,” which caused him to come out publicly after the match. On Saturday, Michael’s team, Volei Futuro, played host to Sada Cruzeiro in Game 2 of their best-of-three series and […]