Cheryl Swoopes

[dlgood]

Was reading the following article by Michelle Voepel taken on ESPN, regarding WNBA star Cheryl Swoopes recent decision to publicly "out" herself...

Swoopes could open door for others to follow

It's a conversation I've had with folks many, many times over the years, as recently as a few days ago. The topic: When will women's basketball be able to deal even semi-honestly with the issue of homosexuality? Usually, there has been some thread of optimism in the discussion that starts with, "Surely, pretty soon, some big star is finally going to say it: 'Look, this is ridiculous. I'm a good person, I'm in love, I'm really happy. What am I afraid of? Yes, I'm gay.'" And now, finally, a player who has defined the past decade-plus of women's basketball -- not just a big star but one of the all-time greatest in the sport -- is stepping forward and saying just that.

Read Text of Article

Interesting stuff. Swoopes was always one of my favorite athletes, so I'm curious if anyone else has been following this...

Comments

[stars91.livejournal.com]

I read about that yesterday. I was certainly surprised, but when people keep stuff like that quiet who would have known. I don't really feel one way or the other about it. Its her business, no one elses, and it has nothing to do with her basketball ability.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I've been following it, and I read a great comment from Swoopes: I've had more newspapers and journalists calling me this week asking me about my MVPs than I did when I got them.

And still no outtings in male sports....

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

I'm hard pressed to think of many outed male athletes in team sports, though there are a few. Certainly, nobody active, and nobody of Swoopes' caliber.

The closest to it, was the insane circus around Mike Piazza when he was accused of being gay. Who'd want to have to deal with that?

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Exactly... it's such a winkwink nudgenudge that there are lesbians in sports, but the public gasps at the idea that a red-blooded Amerkin man could be gay. It has to be difficult to live your life in the public eye as a sham.

It makes me want to not pay any lip service to Swoopes outing, if only to not add fuel to the fire, you know? She's a monster on the court, nothing has changed with her ability, and... You know?

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

I think the gender issue is different for another reason though...

Because, for a long time, it wasn't the WinkWink Lesbian issue alone... it was also women being tagged as lesbians and improper/wrong/ or not female enough for daring to play sports.

Maybe this is me being shallow... but Swoopes is a little different to me than say... Martina Navratilova. Which is (wink winks aside) what most people probably think of when the term Lesbian Female Athlete is mentioned. Everybody took Martina seriously as an athlete, and as a female athlete, but it never felt to me that people looked at her as a woman. (The too much of a jock to be a real female stereotypical portrayal...)

It certainly doesn't change how I think of Swoopes, or how I think of gays and sports, but I am interested to see if there's an impact on how other people think.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Literally the only professional male sportsman in the UK to come out as gay was the late Justin Fashanu. Homophobia in the sports world undoubtedly contributed to his instability and eventual suicide.

Mind you, this is a world where Graeme Le Saux (another UK pro footballer) complained of being constantly abused as homosexual because he openly read the Guardian.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

As noted, there were players who came out after retirement. Just not any that I know of who came out while active. Greg Louganis, maybe, but he was in an individual sport. Not a team sport, where the culture is very harsh...

[ljgould.livejournal.com]

I've known Swoopes for years. She's always been one of my favorite people. I'm proud of her.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

knew her? Really. That's awesome. I only know her from what I saw on TV, but she's always impressed me.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

One of the former Steeler quarterbacks got outed but only because he got arrested doing something illegal at the time as well but that's about the only one I knew about.

It's rather sad that it has to even be an issue

[philister.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of Swoops before today, really. Basketball isn't all that popular a sport here in Germany and I don't think Women's Basketball ever so much as scored on the media radar.

That said, I was kinda wondering about this paragraph in the article where tha author said something along the lines of "you don't think it's a big deal? But you certainly gasped when you read it, right?" Well, no. I didn't.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think homosexuality is such a big issue here in Germany and probably Europe in general (except the very Catholic countries) as it is in America. Granted, I can't think of any male athletes that have publicly outed themselves, but I don't think it would make that much of an impact here. Okay, maybe a short in the media, but that would be it. Besides, the German National Football coach is gay and except for occassionaly making fun of him, we're fine with it.