A reader writes:
It’s not a major league team sport, but there has been an out MMA fighter for some years, Shad Smith. Here's a NYT article about him from 2008. He’s about as masculine as it gets.
Another writes:
In response to my claims on Martina as the real groundbreaker, another reader claims, "So, not to take anything away from the contributions of lesbians to athletics, but lesbians in athletics are not exactly forging new territory. In fact, lesbians comprise such a large number of WNBA players and what may be a majority of WNBA fans that out-lesbianism isn't worth blinking an eye."
While he may be correct that many WNBA players are lesbians, there are actually very few of them that are out lesbians.
I can only think of one who's playing right now, Sheryl Swoopes. Maybe three that no longer play. The reader's basing his "facts" on the old presumption that the majority of female athletes are lesbians, when in fact, that's just not true. As a former Division I college basketball player, I can attest to the fact that the majority of my teammates were straight. And I can also attest to the fact that the perception of lesbians in sport has actually had the effect of making the closet deeper for lesbians because coaches, administrators and now business people in the WNBA fear lesbians will ruin the "family market" and the spread of sports to "regular" girls. All because of those scary lesbians.
In college ranks, it's just as bad. When I was playing in 1985, I was told to my face I would lose my scholarship if I came out as gay or if it became to obvious that I was. The fear that created in me held me back from coming out for another decade after college. In women's Division I college basketball right now, there is just one women's coach who is an out lesbian. One. There are clearly many more coaches who are lesbians, but they are afraid of how their program will be punished by negative recruiting from other coaches saying, "You don't want to go there…it's not a program with a family atmosphere." The code for a lesbian coach to scare off parents from sending their daughters to those dreaded predatory lesbians who will recruit them into the lifestyle.
In light of the still lagging ability of women to be out in sport, despite and because of the perception that they're all gay anyway, it makes Martina's courage to come out in 1981 all that much more remarkable. She forged ground that men, and many women, still fear to tread. I get a sense that the reader imagines it's somehow easier for women athletes to come out than it would be for men. I'd say the challenges for each group are much different, but the pressures and associate fear are very much the same.
(Photo: WNBA Legend Sheryl Swoopes paints at Learn with the City Year during a NBA Cares All-Star Day of Service on February 18, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. By David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images)
The Dish 