Daily Star: Lacrosse Player Comes Out
March 15, 2010 by Gay Agenda News Team · Leave a Comment
Andrew McIntosh aims to destroy doors on gay closets, and he started with his own.
Last year, as a newly appointed lacrosse team captain at SUNY Oneonta, McIntosh said he wrestled with suicidal thoughts until he decided to talk about being a gay man.
First, he told a close friend from high school and his sister. Since then, he told his coach, Dan Mahar, and fellow captains.
On Feb. 15, McIntosh told his teammates, the same day Outsports.com, an online gay sports community, published his article, “College lacrosse player comes out to his team.’’
McIntosh, 22, of Putnam Valley, said he intended to answer individual questions when asked about his sexuality instead of telling the entire team, but then he realized teammates would be reading his essay.
“Being honest is very important to me,’’ McIntosh said, “and I wanted them to hear it from me and not from anyone else.’’ Mahar said he is proud to say there has been no hint of negativity from players.
It’s good to know athletes are STARTING to come out and are being accepted. A sure sign the times are changing!
Excluding Weir is Unacceptable
March 13, 2010 by Gay Agenda News Team · 1 Comment
Three-time U.S. Champion and Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir confirmed on March 12 that he will be excluded from the 2010 ‘Stars on Ice Tour’ because the organization deemed him “not family friendly.”
“I’ve never been invited to do ‘Stars on Ice’ before, which is the only figure skating tour in the U.S.,” said Weir. “It’s disappointing that I can’t perform for my American fans… all because I’m not ‘family friendly’ enough.”
Weir suffered constant attacks during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver because of his perceived sexual orientation and gender expression. One Canadian sports commentator even suggested that Weir should undergo gender verification testing.
The ‘Stars on Ice’ decision is yet another example of the bias Weir faces simply for being who he is. For the organization to suggest that Weir is “not family friendly” because of his outspoken style and/or gender expression is both outrageous and offensive.
Signing this letter tells ‘Stars on Ice’ that excluding Johnny Weir from its 2010 tour because he is “not family friendly” is unacceptable.
Contact information for ‘Stars on Ice’ and Smuckers (a corporate sponsor of ‘Stars on Ice’):
Jennifer Cosgrove, Spokesperson ‘Stars on Ice’
jcosgrove@rbcpr.com
(201) 760-0200 Ext. 107
Maribeth Badertscher, Director of Corporate Communications, Smuckers
Maribeth.badertscher@jmsmucker.com
Phone: 1-330-682-3000
See GLAAD Blog and GLAAD’s statement for more information.
NCAA Faces Criticism Over Ad
February 24, 2010 by Gay Agenda News Team · Leave a Comment
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is taking heat over an ad for a conservative advocacy group that appeared for a time this week on its corporate Web site.
The promotion for the group, Focus on the Family, features a smiling father holding his young son, next to the words “Celebrate Family. Celebrate Life.” Beneath the photo appears the message: “All I want for my son is for him to grow up knowing how to do the right thing.”
It’s the second time this month that Focus on the Family has been linked to the world of college sports. The organization stirred controversy over an antiabortion commercial featuring Tim Tebow, the standout former University of Florida quarterback, that aired during CBS’s broadcast of the Super Bowl.
Uproar over the ad on NCAA.com emerged on Monday, when Pat Griffin, a professor-turned-blogger, saw the ad and wrote about it. Other blogs took note. A Facebook group soon appeared and urged its members to protest the NCAA’s decision to run an ad from a group that they perceive as being against gay rights and diversity. By midday Tuesday, the ad was gone.
Also, read more at Pat Griffin’s blog by clicking here!
Winter Has Broken
February 24, 2010 by Gay Agenda News Team · Leave a Comment
Most gays don’t like baseball. Despite the preponderance of baseball games on at DC gay sports bar Nellies over the summer, most of them couldn’t tell you the difference between a cutter and a curve ball. Oh sure, they’ll see David Wright or Matt Kemp or Ichiro and think, “Oh, he’s hot,” but won’t give an iota of thought to any of the three’s Hall of Fame merits or how their play impacts a pennant race. That must change. In baseball, every gay man (and women, for that matter; baseball has a long history of being passed on from fathers to daughters and mothers to sons) has an opportunity to relate a little more easily to straight society.
It has a unique place in American history and culture. Indeed, baseball has made a global impact unlike any other sport this country has played. On a simple level: the game of baseball is the most beautiful game ever invented. The contradictions of the game, fundamental to its nature, are amazing. A leisurely game that demands blazing speed. A game that hates change, but has often times been ahead of larger societal changes. A democratic game that accepts (even to a degree encourages) cheating.
Athletes Still Keep Quiet
February 20, 2010 by Gay Agenda News Team · Leave a Comment
The Vancouver Winter Olympics, now underway, are breaking new ground in hosting gay fans. With two Pride Houses on the Olympic grounds, spectators and athletes no longer need to feel that “gay” and “sports” are incompatible. Even so, publicly out athletes are very hard to find. Direct homophobia may not be the cause of their silence—rather, there is a sense among gay competitors that sexuality should not dominate discussions of athletic skill. In short, as gay athletes become more public, the relationship of sexuality and sport becomes more complex.
Previous Olympics have had gay bars or gathering spaces, but nothing on the scale of the Pride Houses at the Vancouver Games. Two Pride Houses are located at major gathering points for spectators, and are designed not only to provide a place to hang out, but are intended to broadly address the problem of homophobia in sports.
