[Article: The Games Men Play] Page: 1 of 8
This article is part of the collection entitled: LGBT Collections and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the UNT Libraries Special Collections.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
The Games
EN PLAY
Gay men and sports-it's a proposition
loaded with boyhood traumas,
stereotypes, and a whole new jock reality.
DEGEN PENER reports.E VERY SPR ING for the past four years I have
stayed inside on the weekends as much as pos-
sible and watched college basketball. The fact
that I do this continues to amaze me.
I'll admit it all started because I developed a
severe infatuation with a player, former Duke center
Christian Laettner, a 6-foot-I I, devilish, blue-eyed angel
who now plays for the Minnesota Timberwolves. During
the 1990 NCAA tournament I religiously watched Duke go
all the way to win the championship, patiently waiting for
those all-too-few close-ups of Laettner's pretty-boy face
and his lanky frame, which was far too covered up by his
baggy uniform.
But then something unexpected happened. I found my-
self watching games in which Duke wasn't playing. I was on
the phone with my straight brothers discussing miracle
three-pointers, having personal fouls explained to me, and
arguing about the relative merits of teams from states like
Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, states I have never
even imagined visiting. I became obsessed with a sport I
thought I had mercifully left behind when Isaid goodbye to
high school gym class. I have since watched pro football
games and enjoyed them too.
Why has this surprised me so much? Because growing
up in the Midwest, the land of fairy-tale romances between
quarterbacks and cheerleaders, I'd always thought that
being gay and enjoying sports were mutually incompatible
activities. There are plenty of good reasons why I and many
gay men believe that. Here are a few:
I. Not a single player, past or present, has ever competed in
baseball's major leagues as an openly gay man. The same
goes for the National Football League. And the National
Basketball Association. And even, can you believe, the Na-
tional Hockey League.
2. No American athlete has competed at any Olympics as an
openly gay man. As far as I can find out, no athlete from
anywhere in the entire world has done this. Perhaps this
has something to do with why I found the countless shots of
Dan Jansen's wife, Robin, crying with joy in Lillehammer so
annoying. I'm sure she's a very nice woman, but please,
we're long overdue for some balanced coverage.
3. Most athletes, like most members of the armed forces,
are not yet secure enough to shower anywhere near a
known homo.
Degen Pener is writer-at-large for Elle magazine and a
former New York Times columnist.98
4. The Gay Games are called the Gay Games because the
United States Olympic Committee was willing to fight a long
and costly legal battle to keep them from being called the
Gay Olympics. The USOC has not taken similar action
against the Rat Olympics.
TO S AY T H AT G AY M EN simply aren't welcome
in the world of big league sports is an enormous
understatement. Ed Gallagher, an offensive
lineman at the University of Pittsburgh in the
late '70s, knows that all too well.
"I used to have a total fear of somebody suggesting I
was gay back then," he says. "The word faggot blasted in
my head all the time. I didn't know how anything gay could
mesh with my concept of what a jock was. If you were sen-
sitive to helping little old ladies, you might get razzed about
it. It was like sensitivity at all was anathema to being an
athlete. It didn't mesh with the killer instinct you were sup-
posed to have. And I certainly equated gay infatuations
with sensitive nellie stuff."
After he left college, Gallagher, a six-foot-six, 275-
pound man, continued to live in fear of his homosexuality,
with devastating results. In 1985. at the age of 27, he had
his first sexual experience with another man. Twelve days
later he tried to commit suicide by jumping off the Kensico
Dam in Valhalla, New York.
It took becoming a quadriplegic as a result of his sui-
cide attempt to lead him out of the closet. Today he speaks
to New York area students about his experience. "I direct
an organization I began in 1991. called Alive to Thrive,
along with two other people who are spinal-cord injured,"
he says. "We speak on substance-abuse prevention, suicide
prevention, disability awareness, self-esteem enhance-
ment. I talk about being gay. I always bring it up."
Even so, Gallagher can't imagine playing football in
1994 and being out.."I don't think I could," he says. "It
would have to be very clandestine."
Despite all this depressing news, gay men and orga-
nized sports are becoming more compatible. The world of
sports is changing, albeit not drastically. Because of people
like Gallagher, it is no longer quite the impenetrable
fortress of heterosexuality it used to be. More and more
big-name athletes are coming out, challenging the notion
that all jocks are straight.
The myth began to be AT HIS BEST: Greg Louganis
chipped away at in 1975, (left) and Ablin Killiat at
when former NFL running the 1988 Olympics.PHOTOGRAPHS FROM AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS
4.
I
JUNE 1994 0 U T
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This article can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Article.
[Article: The Games Men Play], article, June 1994; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc915730/m1/1/: accessed June 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.