Blogging Buddy LYNDON EVANS at FOCUS ON THE RAINBOW  posted today, "Back in the late 70′s and early 80′s when I was a radio sportscaster here in Danbury, CT I never had the courage to do what  sportswriter Steve Buckley has done today. Granted at the time for me it was complicated as at one point I was engaged but after several months I knew it wouldn’t work and so the engagement was ended, which was a better thing in the long run for both of us.

That aside and while I worked with several of “us” at our radio stations as well as becoming friends with others at different CT radio stations we all very much remained in the closet regardless whether we were gay, lesbian or bisexual. It was a different time than today when those who were out and proud and who one could look up to were few and far in between.

There were no examples on TV of gay characters except for on the ABC TV show Dynasty but that wasn’t until ’81, anti-gay jokes were very much in vogue and while one may have wished and wondered about a celeb, they were locked behind a closet door which only they and their press agent had a key. There certainly weren’t any out broadcasters or newspaper writers. Oh everyone thought Rex Reed at The New York Observer was lavendar but that’s as far as it went in print at least here in the New York City area. In sports reporting one couldn’t fathom such a thing as an out reporter any more than an out athlete."

Due to the macho nature of sports, I think that industry has been the slowest to open it's closet doors. Actually, Wikipedia lists about 100 who have come out  -  or been outed.

Besides Olympic figure skaters, Olympic divers, Olympic gymnasts and women in any sport, for which it no longer really counts as a surprise if one of them comes out, it is still a fairly homophobic atmosphere, I would guess.

In a column today titled "Welcome to My Coming-Out Party," Boston Herald sportswriter Steve Buckley announced that he is gay. (Pictured below)

In the highly personal piece, he writes, "I've put this off long enough. I haven't been fair to my family, my friends or my co-workers. And I certainly haven't been fair to myself: For too many years I've been on the sidelines of Boston's gay community but not in the game -- figuratively and literally, as I feel I would have had a pretty good career in the (gay) Beantown Softball League."

"Today I’m a bit jealous that Steve Buckley has been able at this time in his life and career to come out as a gay man for all the world to see."  Adds  Lyndon Evans. " Not because of rumors or innuendo nor speculation, Buckley has decided on his own terms that now is the time and has done so in his column at The Boston Herald. How his readers and those in the sports world in Beantown will handle it will say more about them than him."

Though athletics have earned a reputation for being unfriendly to gay men and lesbians, more and more sports professionals have been coming out of the closet in recent years.


RUGBY  has a reputation for being one of the most masculine, rough-housing sports out there. So fans were shocked when Gareth Thomas, a superstar Welsh rugby player who was at the time married to a woman, announced in 2009 that he is gay.

He told the British media, "I'm proud of who I am. I feel I have achieved everything I could ever possibly have hoped to achieve out of rugby, and I did it being gay."

The unabashedly flamboyant  Johnny Weir long refused to answer questions about his sexuality. Really?!  But in his upcoming memoir, "Welcome to My World," Weir admits that he is gay. GASP!

Sports writer Mike Penner had a sad ending... The popular Los Angeles Times sports columnist, Penner announced in 2007 that he was transsexual and would begin living as a woman, under the name Christine Daniels. Yet in 2008, the sportswriter resumed living as a man and using the name Mike Penner. In 2009, Penner committed suicide at the age of 52.

More and more we see the closet doors opening, I (and we all should)  celebrate each persons courage to open that door.


They could have easily chosen to remain silent on this issue, and that would probably have been easier. But by coming out, they do a great service to humanity, joining the increasingly visible and vocal group of LGBT people and their allies who, merely by existing and being honest about who they are, strike a blow against hatred and intolerance.

Bigotry will still exist, of course; plenty of people will be comfortable with their hate no matter what. But many more people, finding that their families and friends include people with a wide variety of interests, beliefs and gender identities, will start to rethink their biases. Even those personally uncomfortable with homosexuality will increasingly find themselves unwilling to deny their friends and family the rights that they enjoy. Simply put, people who know gay people are less likely to be homophobes.

Kudos to Steve Buckley, on his Coming Out Day!

Free at last, Free at last!

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