Matthew Mitcham a model for an athlete coming out

From Jim Buzinski's look at Matthew Mitcham's coming out and how things have changed since 2008:

Four years later, things are a different, but in a positive way. In London, it's Mitcham diving and not his sexual orientation that is the focus. He has built a template for how someone should come out.

In reading coverage of Mitcham in the lead-up to competing Friday in London, I was struck by how his sexuality is often not mentioned - he is Matthew Mitcham, diver, not Matthew Mitcham, gay diver. That's progress.

It's not as if Mitcham tries to hide who he is. He is a spokesman for gay marriage in Australia, posing for an "I Do" campaign in a magazine. He was the grand marshal of Sydney's famous gay Mardi Gras parade. In 2010, he was named a Gay Games ambassador and did more than just lend his name. He came to Cologne, Germany, and participated in the Opening Ceremonies and hung out with other athletes; he was utterly charming and everyone wanted their picture taken with him and he happily obliged.

Read in full

Where are the out Olympians?

From Jill Lawless, Associated Press:

LONDON – It has been a great games for gay Olympians — probably.

British equestrian Carl Hester won gold in team dressage in London. Midfielder Megan Rapinoe has scored three goals for the U.S. women’s soccer team and several other lesbian players are part of the Dutch field hockey team heading into Friday’s final.

But it’s likely there have been more triumphs by gay and lesbian competitors that the world doesn’t know about.

There are more than 10,000 athletes competing at the London games, but when the gay website OutSports.com set out to count how many were openly gay, it came up with 23.

“It’s an absurdly low number,” said site co-founder Jim Buzinski. He said that compared to the arts, politics or business worlds, “sports is still the final closet in society.”

Estimates of the percentage of gay people in any given population vary widely. In a 2010 survey by Britain’s Office for National Statistics, 1.5 per cent of respondents identified themselves as gay or bisexual, although many consider that an underestimate.

Only a handful of Olympic competitors have publicly identified themselves as gay, including Hester, Rapinoe, U.S. basketball player Seimone Augustus, Australian diver Matthew Mitcham and South African archer Karen Hultzer, who came out to the media during the games.

“I am an archer, middle-aged and a lesbian,” the 46-year-old athlete told OutSports — but said she looked forward to the day when her sexuality was not an issues. I am also cranky before my first cup of coffee,” she said. “None of these aspects define who I am, they are simply part of me.”

Gay sports groups say the London games organizers have been welcoming, including gay, lesbian and transgender volunteers among its staff and sanctioning an official games rainbow pin.

The London Pride House, a gay hospitality venue, had official approval from games organizers. London organizing chief executive Paul Deighton said the site helped show Britain as an inclusive place “which welcomes the world’s diverse communities and creates a safe sporting environment for LGBT athletes.”

But activists fear the next host city — Sochi in southern Russia — will be far less gay-friendly. Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, but anti-gay sentiment remains strong. Protests by gay rights activists regularly end in mass arrests.

British rights activist Peter Tatchell and a handful of supporters rallied Thursday outside Russia’s Sochi Park pavilion in London to protest Russian authorities’ refusal to allow a pride house at the 2014 Winter Games — a decision that was backed up by a Russian court.

“Quite clearly, this ban is in violation of the Olympic charter, which prohibits discrimination and guarantees equality,” Tatchell said. He said the International Olympic Committee “doesn’t appear to want to engage with this issue.”

IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said the IOC would not comment “on private court cases,” but added that “the IOC is an open organization and athletes of all orientations will be welcome at the games.”

Marc Naimark of the Federation of Gay Games said the IOC should pressure countries to repeal anti-gay laws the way it once excluded South Africa for its racial apartheid policy and, more recently, succeeded in getting all competing nations to include female athletes on their teams in London.

“The lack of ‘out’ athletes in the Olympics is a symptom,” Naimark said. “It’s not the problem.”

There is a particular dearth of openly gay male Olympians — there are only three men on that London list of 23. The most high-profile is Mitcham, whose Twitter biography calls him “that gay, 2008-Olympic-gold-medal-winning diver dude.” He’ll be defending his 10-meter springboard title at the games this weekend.

Rapinoe, who came out earlier this year, said it was more difficult for male athletes than for women to be open about their sexuality.

“I think there’s a lot of gay women in sports, and it’s widely known in the team, they can live a pretty open lifestyle without being open in the media,” she said. “But I think for men unfortunately it’s not the same climate in the locker room.”

There’s also the fear of losing lucrative commercial endorsements. Sponsors would never admit that they would drop an athlete who came out as gay, but few competitors would want to risk it.

Much was made of the fact that former NBA player John Amaechi signed an endorsement deal with razor company HeadBlade after he came out in 2007. But HeadBlade is small potatoes compared to Adidas or other huge sports sponsors.

Times may be changing, however. Adidas spokeswoman Katja Schreiber said the company would stand by an athlete who chose to come out of the closet.

Buzinski thinks the environment for gay athletes is improving. He points to the growing number of athletes, gay and straight, who are prepared to speak out against homophobia.

Many athletes who come out say it has been a positive experience — and even performance-enhancing. Rapinoe scored two goals in the U.S. team’s semifinal win over Canada.

“I guess it seems like a weight off my shoulders,” she said on the eve of Thursday’s gold medal match against Japan. “I’ve been playing a lot better than I’ve ever played before. I think I’m just enjoying myself and I’m happy.”

___

Associated Press Writers Joseph White and Raissa Ioussouf contributed to this report. Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

Are out athletes just better? The medal count says yes

Outsports looks at the performance so far of out athletes at the Olympics:

Aug 6, 2012 - We at Outsports have identified104 openly gay and lesbian Summer Olympians over the years. Some of them were out while competing, others came out after their Games. An astonishing 53 of them -- over 50 percent -- have won a medal. That's an incredible percentage and far exceeds the average of all athletes who have taken home Olympic hardware.

This year, we may be on pace for a similar performance. There are 23 publicly out Olympians we know of in London, though the number keeps growing. Already, two out athletes -- German cyclist Judith Arndt (silver) and American tennis player Lisa Raymond (bronze) -- have won medals. And while a number of out Olympians have been eliminated from competition, many others are positioned for a medal.

Read the full article about out athletes at the Olympics.

Pink Sixty News interviews Karen Hultzer

In conversation with Karen Hultzer at Pride House London 2012
South African Olympic archer Karen Hultzer in an informal conversation at Pride House London 2012, with Team GB's sitting vollyball team captain Claire Harvey and Pinksixty's Colin Fallesen.

Ji Wallace and Emy Ritt interviewed for Karen Hultzer feature

Ji Wallace, Emy Ritt, Karen Hultzer, Shamey Cramer

Belinda Goldsmith from Reuters interviews Gay Games Ambassador Ji Wallace and co-president Emy Ritt for her feature on newly out archer Karen Hultzer:

Aug 5 (Reuters) - South African archer Karen Hultzer hopes coming out as a lesbian at the London Olympics will help people struggling with their sexuality and add to the fight against homophobia in sport.

One of 23 openly gay and lesbian athletes at the London Games, Hultzer waited until after her event to go public.

After finishing 46th out of 64 in the women's archery, she said most athletes were so focused on their performance that they could not fight other battles while competing.

"I hope this gives people some courage. The more we come out and talk about it, the more people should realise that being gay is a non-issue and we can progress," Hultzer, 46, who has only been shooting for five years, told Reuters.

[...]

Ji Wallace, who won a silver medal in the men's trampoline at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and came out in 2005, said there were two key reasons for athletes staying in the closet during their career.

Firstly, most athletes were young, still coming to terms with their sexuality, and often too busy for relationships. Bullying on school sports fields was the start of gay athletes hiding their sexuality as they wanted support from team mates.

Second, it came down to money. Athletes feared losing sponsorship or endorsements if they came out.

"Athletes need to focus totally on themselves and their game so they can chase their dreams and goals," Australian Wallace told Reuters. "It is those of us who have finished competing to fight for future generations."

At London, gay rights campaigners have called on the IOC to uphold the Olympic charter on equality and take a firm stand against homophobia, much as the Olympic movement has tackled racism and sexism.

Emy Ritt, co-president of the Federation of Gay Games, said the campaign had notched up a small victory by successfully lobbying London organisers to sanction the first official gay and lesbian pin featuring a rainbow, the symbol of gay pride.

"In the professional sports world we are seeing more and more athletes coming out because the younger generation sees this as far less of a stigma," Ritt told Reuters.

"But we need to make sure that organisations like the IOC encourage equal rights for gay, lesbian and transgender athletes so they feel safe coming out."

Jonathan Cooper, a barrister and chief executive of human rights organisation Human Dignity Trust, said the Olympics were a good opportunity to highlight the 78 countries around the world where homosexuality was illegal.

"Criminalisation is a major systemic human rights problem. With criminalisation comes HIV, violence and exploitation," said Cooper.

Hultzer, who juggles her six-hour-a-day training with running a landscaping business, hoped athletes coming out as gay would help teenagers who are struggling with their sexuality and found themselves bullied online.

"We need to stand up as role models to show that it is not bad to be gay and it is normal," she told Reuters. (editing by Michael Holden)

Read in full HERE.

Martina Navratilova encourages athletes to come out

From Gay Star News:

Martina Navratilova, the world’s greatest ever female tennis star has told Gay Star News that closeted gay athletes should come out.

The lesbian multiple-Grand Slam champion says LGBT athletes who are not open are just ‘too paranoid’, in an interview released by GSN today (27 July) to mark the official start of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

There are only a handful of openly LGBT people competing in the Olympics this summer – far less than 1% and sport is often cited as being institutionally homophobic.

Keep reading HERE.

Where are the missing gays in London 2012?

From Lesbilicious:

The 2012 Summer Olympics in London will feature 21 athletes who are openly gay or bisexual, and 18 of those are women.

While it is encouraging that there are some gay sportspeople who are out, the number is incredibly, ridiculously, painfully low.

There are 12,602 athletes competing in the Olympic games. According to the 2010 Integrated Household Survey, approximately 5% of the UK population is lesbian, gay or bisexual.

Assuming this figure is representative of other countries, and that sports stars’ are no more or less likely to be queer than the general population, statistically speaking we should expect 609 of the competitors to be lesbian, gay or bisexual.

The list of 21 athletes, compiled by Outsports, only includes sports people who have come out publicly. It doesn’t include sports men and women rumoured to be gay.


Keep reading HERE.

Blake Skjellerup featured in Sydney Star Observer article

Thanks to Blake for talking about his role as Gay Games Ambassador, and for Kate Rowe for speaking to the need for more out active elite athletes to provide visibility for young people. From the Sydney Star Observer:

In 2010, New Zealand’s Olympic speed ice skater Blake Skjellerup did what few elite athletes will ever risk: he publicly came out as a gay man.

What sets Skjellerup apart from other Olympic athletes who have come out though, is that he revealed his sexuality during his career.

[...]

Two years since Skjellerup came out in an interview, he admitted he had not received any backlash or negative feedback for the move.

“The one thing that has changed is that I have a greater support base behind me in terms of people who know about me and my career,” he said.

“I think its important for anybody to just take part and feel like they can do sport. The gay community is extremely under-represented still in sport and I must admit, when I was growing up I had trouble finding someone I could relate to, not just with my sexuality but also in my sport.

“The more people who are out there being open and honest and not afraid to share who it is they are, I think the better because it’s still hard for some people to come to terms with their sexuality. If they have someone to look up to and to relate with, then it makes that journey a whole lot easier.”

Outside of training and competitions, Skjellerup is a Federation of Gay Games ambassador.

Along with Australian Olympians, diver Matthew Mitcham and cyclist Michelle Ferris, the speed skater advocates for the games and encourages people to get involved.

Kate Rowe, Australian/New Zealand ambassador manager for the Federation of Gay Games, said more athletes like Skjellerup were needed.

“For me, it’s very important that we have some younger role models because they’re the future,” she said.

The Ambassadors are not paid for their work but meet community members at events like the Midsumma Festival to stir up interest.

It would have taken a lot of courage to come out as an Olympic athlete, Rowe said, because he has not retired yet.

“With people like Blake and Matthew, who are still elite athletes, they’re almost putting their careers at risk because they know it may affect the sponsorship dollars,” she said.

“I think it is brave and the more people like Matthew and Blake who are prepared to stand up and be themselves and still want to continue in their sport, that’s how the barriers will be broken down.”

The next Gay Games will be held in 2014 in Cleveland, Ohio, making the next two years a mighty effort.

[...]

Read in full HERE.

Outsports' red carpet interviews: Rob Gronkowski and Cedrick Ceballos

Outsports' Cyd Zeigler Jr went to the ESPY's, the awards of cable sports network ESPN, where he did some great interviews. Here are snippets of two of them:

American football player Rob Gronkowski
I was taken aback a bit when Gronkowski stepped away from me upon hearing I was “with Outsports, we call it ESPN for homos.” The man who had quickly become one of my favorite athletes on my favorite team was about to be the first pro athlete to refuse an interview with me about gay issues in the NFL.

[...]

“How would you feel if one of your teammates on the Patriots came out of the closet this season?”

This time he didn’t pause.

“If that’s how they are, that’s how they are,” Gronkowski said. “I mean, we’re teammates so, as long as he’s being a good teammate and being respectful and everything, that’s cool.”

And with that, Gronkowski added his name to the growing list of professional athletes who would welcome a gay teammate. Because of the way we treat celebrities in our culture, it nearly didn’t happen. As a fan of the player and his team, I was proud he got past his fears of the potential backlash and gave me a minute of his time.


And...

Former professional basketball player Cedric Ceballos
Former NBA All-Star Cedric Ceballos told Outsports he played with a gay teammate in college and looks forward to a day when homophobia is in our distant past. We caught up with Ceballos at the ESPY Awards on July 11, where the former Cal State Fullerton star told us about his gay former teammate and roommate.

There's lot more of each interview, so make sure you read them in full!

Out in London 2012

We're working on a definitive list from various sources (including you!) on out athletes, coaches and officials at the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Find the page on our Pride House 2012 pages HERE.

LeVar Arrington says the first out NFL player will be a hero

Via Outsports: On his Washington DC-based radio show with Chad Dukes, former NFL Redskins player LaVar Arrington discussed an NFL player coming out of the closet, in response to Outsports' article highlighting 12 NFL players who wouldn’t care. Arrington retweeted dozens of responses he got, and he said that player would be held up as a “national hero”. Listen below:

Segment 1: says he will support a gay teammate

Segment 2: Teammate support

Segment 3: Callers talk about the topic of gay players and coming out

Segment 4: Gay athletes in the locker room

Segment 5: Discussion of gay athletes in sports

Segment 6: More on the discussion of gay athletes in sports

John Amaechi interview: truth is not quite as strange as fiction

A writer is set straight by Gay Games John Amaechi:
(Read more on the writers blog HERE and HERE)

My idea was to write a piece about a fictitious gay NBA basketball player on the threshold of coming out of the closet. The timing seemed right as sports talking heads (1, 2, 3) and NBA power brokers are suggesting the first pro athlete playing a team sport in America will imminently be calling that press conference.

Of the 7billion human beings ambulating around our planet, there is a single leading authority on this subject, John Ekwugha Amaechi. In 2007, four years after retiring from his NBA career, John publically declared he was gay. He is the only NBA player, past or present, to come out of the closet.

John is a six-foot-nine-inch homosexual and black Englishman who played basketball in the NBA for five years. The summation of those attributes alone makes him an outlier. But there are more: he has donated millions to philanthropic causes in his hometown, received the Order of the British Empire civilian medal for being a guiding light against social inequality, and holds a PhD in psychology.

Three seconds into our interview it became evident that, as far as John was concerned, I was dead wrong about my assumption that just around the corner a pro athlete would be popping out of the closet.

Keep reading HERE.

"Sports play strong role in gay rights"

From an article with a great headline that lets the reader down, but is still worth reading:

In June, [Pat] Griffin joined about 30 other leading activists at Nike’s headquarters in Oregon for the company’s first-ever summit to combat bullying and anti-gay bias and discrimination in sports.

“Athletes are leaders of a school and are highly visible role models,” Griffin said. “It’s a no-brainer to take a stand against that kind of thing for most people, certainly not all.”

Last week U.S. women’s soccer player Megan Rapinoe publicly acknowledged that she is gay in advance of growing coverage of this month’s London Olympics. The information added Rapinoe to the notable list of active female athletes who have made similar disclosures.

Griffin noted that the relative lack of coverage for women’s sports and existing biases about female athletes remove much of the impact that the same disclosure would have from an active male athlete in a major U.S. team sport. Still, it’s one more step in the right direction.

“I have more hope than I ever have had that we will change the culture of sport to make it a great place for everyone,” Griffin said. “There are so many more people who think this is an important issue and are actively involved in an effort to challenge homophobia in sport. It used to be a few lonely voices in the wilderness, but not anymore. The rate of change is just accelerating.”

Read in full HERE.

Olympic footballer Megan Rapinoe comes out

From Out Magazine:


Megan Rapinoe is learning to be comfortable in the spotlight. She’s got to be; it’s enthusiasts who keep soccer alive.

“We need fans; we need people to watch our games,” she says. “I don’t think it happens like it does in male sports, just because we’re playing. We do a good job of opening up and having our fans know us. But there’s a line we don’t cross, because then they will dive in.”

Some fans already have. Who can blame them? Rapinoe -- also a member of the U.S. women’s national team and a midfielder for the Seattle Sounders Women -- is one of the most well-known women’s soccer players in the world. So it’s no wonder she’s inspired some enthusiastic fans—like the German guy who tattooed her likeness on the back of his calf.

“That was strange—really strange,” she says. “I’m cute, but I’m not that cute.”

With her unmistakable shock of bleached-blond hair and upbeat personality, Rapinoe inspired legions of devotees last year after making her first World Cup appearance as a midfielder on the U.S. women’s team. She had a key role in the team’s heart-pounding wins and instigated an unforgettable moment when she grabbed a microphone and sang “Born in the U.S.A.” to the crowd.

Keep reading HERE.

(Retired) skier Anja Paerson comes out

From The Ski Channel:

Olympic Champion Anja Paerson is one of skiing’s greatest athletes. Since her debut in the 1988 World Cup, the Swedish alpine racer has earned 19 championship medals, 42 World Cup victories and two overall World Cup titles (in 2004 and 2005). In addition to crushing it throughout the World Cup circuit, Paerson was a three-time Olympian and took home six Olympic medals. During the 2002 Salt Lake City Games she earned silver in giant slalom and bronze in slalom, claimed gold in slalom during the 2006 Turnin Games where she also won two bronze medals in combined and downhill, and most recently a bronze medal in the 2010 Vancouver Games’ super-combined. Earlier this year the skier opted to retire from competition, with the Schladming World Cup event marking her final turns before transitioning to a quieter lifestyle. The lull in excitement would be short-lived for Anja, as the ski star made international headlines this past weekend when she confirmed to the world that she was involved in a long-term relationship with another woman.

Paerson made the revelation while hosting a program on Swedish public radio. She detailed that since 2005, she has developed a romantic relationship with girlfriend Filippa. She described the phenomenon of finding her partner by saying, ”I had never intended to fall in love with a woman. Never thought that my heart could beat so fast for a woman. I was insanely in love.”

She went on to explain her thought process on making such a public announcement, saying, ”I am tired of being someone else and of playing a game. I owe it to myself and especially to Filippa to tell the truth.”

Keep reading HERE.

Wrestler Akil Patterson and the Patterson Project

Dan Woog has written a great profile of wrestler Akil Patterson, a member of the Equality Coaching Alliance, and his efforts to bring his personal experience as an example to youth, and in particular to young black men:


When University of Nebraska assistant football coach Ron Brown made anti-gay comments recently - among other things, he threatened the Omaha city council with eternal damnation if it passed a bill prohibiting businesses from firing workers because they're gay - many people were outraged.

Akil Patterson was too. But he understood better than many others where Brown was coming from. Patterson is a former Division I football player. Like Brown, he's African American.

But Patterson's life path has been very different. A gay man, Patterson is dedicating his life to making sure that young athletes do not get bullied or harassed for any reason. Particularly for being gay.

[...]

That openness has enabled him to reach out to others, through something he calls The Patterson Project [HERE].

"It's a mission of love," he says. Through it - by blogging, speaking and serving as a role model - Patterson educates whoever will listen, from elementary school youth through college students, about the importance of being true to yourself.

"The Patterson Project offers a different spin on the life of LGBT athletes, because it doesn't just focus on sexuality," he says. He emphasizes the mental, physical, social and psychological aspects of living life with integrity. He learned many of those skills while working in youth detention centers and courts. With his imposing size (he's 6-foot-3-inches) and athletic accomplishments (he's still a highly ranked Greco-Roman grappler), Patterson has vowed to counter the destructive influences of people like Ron Brown.

As a big, strong athlete, he knows he does not fit the stereotype of a gay man. He could easily "pass" as a straight jock - he did for years, all through college. But Patterson says that would not serve anyone well. Not him, and not young athletes who need role models.

Keep reading HERE.

Gay Games Ambassador Brian Sims on Current TV

Pennsylvania candidate and civil rights advocate Brian Sims talks about Romney’s stance on marriage equality. Sims also tells his personal story, of coming out as gay while a championship college football player.

John Amaechi interview on diversity and inclusion, coming out, the "locker room" myth, and issues for youth

While in Toronto to speak on diversity at he 2015 Pan American Games, John Amaechi did a concise interview wiht a great impact on the John Tory radio show.

Esera Tuaolo on how coming out lifted a burden

Esera Tuaolo on how coming out lifted a burden

Esera on the responsibility of LGBT people to those who might come out

Billy Bean on how to make truth a tool for realizing ones potential

Outsports exclusive interview with former NFL player Wade Davis, now an advocate for LGBT youth

Cyd Zeigler of Outsports has written a fantastic profile of a fascinating man, Wade Davis, his career in pro football, his discovery of LGBT sport, and his work with youth at the Hetrick-Martin Institute. And watch the SBNation video interview with Davis:


It’s still dark in his small Upper East Side apartment when the alarm clock introduces Wade Davis to this Thursday morning in late May. His partner, Steven, sleeps while Davis slips into his regalia: A checkered shirt, slick pants and a bright tie. He kisses Steven and says good-bye. He’ll be back in a few days.

He leaves the apartment as the sun rises, headed for Penn Station. It’s a welcome couple days out of the office for Davis, a staff member at the Hetrick-Martin Institute, which serves lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning youth. Ten years ago, Davis had never heard the term “LGBTQ.” While a closeted cornerback struggling to make a roster in the National Football League, he was as far from the gay community as Ryan Leaf is from the Hall of Fame. Now, as assistant director of job readiness at HMI, Davis prepares these youth for the workplace. He wrangles corporations to run workshops and counsels his students on career opportunities. It’s the closest role to “coach” he could find at the Institute.

Keep reading HERE.