Derrick Gordon, UMASS guard, comes out as gay

[PhDeac]

This is probably the most incorrect thing you've ever posted.

How so? Change is happening very quickly. It hasn't been a big deal in the women's game for awhile and it won't be in the men's age soon enough.

 

[DeacsOrDie]

I'm hoping Nate Britt comes out soon.

Do you know something?

 

[avalon]

How so? Change is happening very quickly. It hasn't been a big deal in the women's game for awhile and it won't be in the men's age soon enough.

It’s not that it isn’t a big deal in women’s sports, the issues are just different. There is a stereotype that female athletes are gay. So athletes can be tentative about coming out publicly because they don’t want to confirm the stereotype. This is a bit long, but interesting:

The Times They Are A-Changin' for LGBTQ People in Sports

This generation gap is true for women's and men's sports. One of the great misunderstandings about women's sports is the belief that homophobia is no longer a problem. Even though we can celebrate a greater number of publicly out lesbian and bisexual women athletes at both the professional and college levels, it is a myth that women's sports teams are discrimination-free lesbian paradises where lesbian and bisexual coaches and athletes are universally out and accepted. Anti-LGBT discrimination and prejudice is alive and well in women's sports and continue to constrain and dominate the actions of women coaches, athletic administrators and athletes. It just plays out a little differently in women's sports than it does in men's sports.

This, in particular, is not something I knew was an issue before:

In women's sports negative recruiting based on perceived sexual orientation has long been a feared and unethical, but often effective tactic used to sway the decisions of high school recruits and their parents about what schools to choose ("You may not be comfortable with the 'lifestyle' issues in that other school's basketball program"). Kim Mulkey, the Baylor women's basketball coach, asked Brittney Griner not to come out while at Baylor fearing the negative impact of having an out lesbian player might have on the team's reputation and therefore, her ability to recruit the best players and win.