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[jammerbirdi]

But it's behind the Times Select wall.

http://www.nytimes.com/

_________________
Every woman who has ever been presented with a career/sex quid pro quo in the entertainment industry should come forward and simply say, “Me, too.� - jammer The New York Times 10/10/17

[thesixthwoman]

"aint no wall that's high enough..."
la la la la,
la -de dah.


October 28, 2005
Sports of the Times
Homophobia Is Alive in Men's Locker Rooms
By SELENA ROBERTS

IN a powder blue Olivia T-shirt, Sheryl Swoopes, wearing hoop earrings, with a basketball under her arm, proudly struck the Web site pitch pose for the Good Ship Lesbian.

Just below a photo of Swoopes on the Olivia Web site, under a section called the Olivia experience, the copy reads, "It's an overwhelming feeling to know that you are always among friends, from stem to stern."

Safety in numbers, in so many ways. Along with Swoopes, the golfer Rosie Jones and the tennis legend Martina Navratilova - who has been out since what, rumble seats? - have lined up to promote Olivia, the lesbian cruise line.

There is no diminishing the importance of each female athlete who publicly declares she wants to love freely in a homophobic culture, to live truthfully in a society divided on gay rights. Somewhere, a girl may feel less alone and less of an outcast because someone like Swoopes - an African-American woman - has further diluted the taboo.

But where is the Oliver Cruise Line for a "Queer Guy on the Straight Team"?

It is hard to know when no male team player dares to come out while still on the roster.

"I don't know who he is or where he is," David Kopay said when reached by phone yesterday. After retiring in 1972, he wrote a best-selling book describing his life as a gay N.F.L. player.

"I think within 10 years it will happen," he added. "But I also thought that 30 years ago."

The stigma is still too much of a burden, still too dangerous. In men's locker rooms, gay slurs are the ultimate insults to raging manhood.

How is this for a support group: Over the past few years, Matt Millen, the president of the Detroit Lions, directed a derogatory term for gays at Chiefs receiver Johnnie Morton; the Giants' Jeremy Shockey referred to Dallas Cowboys Coach Bill Parcells with a gay slur; and the Dolphins' Junior Seau, upon accepting a leadership award, reportedly joked about wanting to tell his teammates that he loved them but added, with his own choice word, that he didn't want to be labeled as gay.

Michael Jordan was known at times to use homosexual slights to belittle teammates during practices. And the tennis infant Lleyton Hewitt has uttered a homophobic line or two during arguments over lines calls.

"It's still more O.K. in society for women to be homosexual," Kopay said.

The savvy marketing folks at Olivia have a way of helping ease a name lesbian into the mainstream view with endorsement opportunities, but the gal pals aren't out on their own.

Some female athletes are openly gay, if not commercially paid. Others, like the tennis star Amélie Mauresmo, endorse without their sexuality as an issue at all. And the homophobia that once roundly inhibited the W.N.B.A. has been abated by teams like the Los Angeles Sparks, who have reached out to the lesbian community, refusing to shy away from a segment of their paying fan base.

Now imagine the National Football League at Gay Pride Week. The leaders of the N.F.L. have expressed compassion for players who have acknowledged their homosexuality after their playing days have ended - as they did for the ex-Viking Esera Tuaolo - but only a handful of teams offer diversity training that includes gay sensitivity issues.

"I still see the N.F.L. not doing anything about homophobia," Kopay said. "The N.F.L. has been shameful."

Are the players more evolved than the league? Some of the enlightened have publicly expressed a willingness to treat a gay teammate no differently from any other player. Others wonder if absolute acceptance is possible.

"As much as one person might hate another because of one thing, they seem to hate more because of sexuality," 49ers linebacker Brandon Moore said in an interview last year. "Those are barriers. I definitely think there could be a day that it happens. I just don't think it is close."

That distance is one reason enthusiasm over Swoopes's declaration that she is gay is tempered, even in places like Outsports.com. In a lively message-board discussion, one respondent reflected a despair in waiting for the first male team star to step out.

"Like it or not, the stereotype of homosexuality is attached to women's sports while being detached from male athletics," the person wrote. "Unfair though it is, the impact of a top male basketball player coming out would resonate so much more. I'd like to reiterate that I think this is wonderful news. And I hope her courage inspires others. But I don't think it's the big breakthrough the gay community is hoping for."

What does hope look like? Kopay has a theory about how a gay man in team sports will arrive: gradually, without fanfare.

"I think there will be a young high school star who is out and who is so good, he will be recruited heavily," Kopay said. "By the time he leaves college and then enters the pros, he won't be pigeon-holed by the stigma anymore."

It will still be difficult - and almost impossible on many levels - to be the first male star out in pro team sports. But if there is one, maybe there will be more. If there is an Olivia, somewhere there must be an Oliver.