Sports and Coming Out

Young LGBT kids across the nation are wondering how and when to come out. For each person that goes through that process it is an intensely personal matter. How some of our relationships might change can be frightening.

Kids who play sports worry about how their teammates, coaches, and opponents will treat them is worth consideration. This week Sports Illustrated published an article by Phil Taylor about the mixed messages that young, closeted LGBT kids see coming from the sports world about equality. We have seen the world champions of baseball make a video for the It Gets Better Project, NBA executive Rick Welts come out, and many more positive messages come out of pro sports. But we have also seen two NBA players fined for homophobic language used during games.

As Taylor puts it “You wish there was one unified message, but there can’t be one, not yet. The sports culture has to go through the growing pains of accommodating itself to a new idea, a growth that will be tentative and uncertain, with conflicting ideas and emotions crashing into each other. But you can relate to that, can’t you? As difficult and wrenching as it sometimes is, this is progress.”

You can read his full article here.