Out in Sport: Basketball Exec Rick Welts Steps Out of the Closet

Although he had opened up to his supportive parents and to his younger, only sibling, Nancy, Mr. Welts feared that if he made his homosexuality public, it would impede his rising sports career.

“It wasn’t talked about,” he said. “It wasn’t a comfortable subject. And it wasn’t my imagination. I was there.”

But this privacy came at great cost. In March 1994, his longtime partner, Arnie, died from complications related to AIDS, and Mr. Welts compartmentalized his grief, taking only a day or two off from work. His secretary explained to others that a good friend of his had died. Although she and Arnie had talked many times over the years, she and her boss had never discussed who, exactly, Arnie was.

Around 7:30 on the morning after Arnie’s death, Mr. Welts’s home telephone rang. “It was Stern,” he recalled. “And I totally lost it on the phone. You know. Uncle Dave. Comforting.”

Even then, homosexuality was never discussed — directly.

For weeks, Mr. Welts walked around the office, numb, unable to mourn his partner fully, or to share the anxiety of the weeklong wait for the results of an H.I.V. test, which came back negative.

Sometime later, he began opening the envelopes of checks written in Arnie’s memory to the University of Washington, and here was one for $10,000, from David and Dianne Stern, of Scarsdale, N.Y. In thanking Mr. Stern, Mr. Welts said they “did the guy thing,” communicating only through asides and silent stipulations.

“This was a loss that Rick had to suffer entirely on his own,” Mr. Stern said, reiterating that he was following Mr. Welts’s lead. “It’s just an indication of how screwed up all this is.”

When Mr. Welts left the N.B.A. in 1999, he was the league’s admired No. 3 man: executive vice president, chief marketing officer and president of N.B.A. Properties. By 2002, he was the president of the Suns who still kept his sexuality private — a decision that at times seemed wise, as when, in 2007, the former N.B.A. player John Amaechi announced that he was gay, prompting the former N.B.A. star Tim Hardaway to say that, as a rule, he hated gay people.

But again Mr. Welts paid a price. Two years ago, a 14-year relationship ended badly, in part because his partner finally rejected the shadow life that Mr. Welts required.

 - NYTimes.com.

Out in Sport: England Cricketer Steven Davies Goes Public

In an ideal world, this should not make the news: sexual lives are personal and private - but we do not live in an ideal world.

Young people need role models. Young boys in particular look to their sporting heroes, far too few of them have had the courage to come out publicly as gay. There are welcome exceptions - and England cricketer Steven Davies has just added to the number, becoming the second British member of a national squad in a major team sport to do so. (The first was Welsh rugby captain, Gareth Thomas).

Steven Davies, the 24-year-old Surrey and England wicketkeeper, has become the latest high-profile sportsman to announce he is gay. In today's Daily Telegraph Davies becomes the first serving professional cricketer to 'out' himself.

Davies, who began his career at Worcestershire, says he hopes his decision will encourage other young gay people to do the same. He said: 'This is the right time for me. I feel it is the right time to be out in the open about my sexuality. If more people do it, the more acceptable it will become.'

Davies follows the former Wales rugby union player Gareth Thomas, who also went public about his sexuality.

Guardian

The New Statesman makes a bold claim, that Davies' coming out could be the tipping point for public acceptance and openness in sports, based on the contrast between Davies and Gareth Thomas, who did so at the peak of his career, and with a solid backing of public support . Davies is young, just starting out in his career, and has not yet established that personal following, which made his action all the more courageous. This assertion of a tipping point may be premature - but there will certainly be many more, in Britain and elsewhere, in team sports of all kinds as well as in the individual sporting codes (where there are rather more examples already).

Coming out is a process, not an event. Davies first did so to his family, five years ago, and then to his cricketing colleagues after his selection for the national team last year. He has now gone public. The very many other gay men in professional sport, who remain trapped in a closet of fear should pay attention to his words: coming out can help others - but also themselves. Coming out is a relief.

"I'm comfortable with who I am - and happy to say who I am in public," he said in an interview with The Sun.

"To speak out is a massive relief for me, but if I can just help one person to deal with their sexuality then that's all I care about."

Davies, who missed out on a place in the England squad for the current World Cup campaign, came out to his friends and family five years ago.

But the first time he told any of his fellow players came following his selection for England's successful Ashes tour during the recent winter.

And he revealed the relief he felt after telling captain Andrew Strauss and the rest of the team.

"It was a fantastic thing to do, telling the lads. The difference is huge. I am so much happier," he said.

Daily Mirror

Related articles

• Out in Sport: German Footballer Urges Honesty
• Greg Louganis, Olympic gold medalist (Diving)
• Matthew Mitcham, Olympic Diver
• Billie Jean King, Tennis Champion
• Martina Navratilova, Tennis Champion
• John Amaechi, Professional basketball player

• Michael Vaughan, Jonathan Agnew and Stephen Fry tweet their support to Steven Davies (telegraph.co.uk)
• Why Steven Davies could be the tipping point for gay sportsmen (newstatesman.com)
• Steven Davies receives England support (independent.co.uk)
• Gareth Thomas backs 'strength and courage' shown by Steven Davies (telegraph.co.uk)

Queer in Sport: Daniel Obree

Cycling champion Graeme Obree says he’s gay

Scottish cycling champion Graeme Obree has revealed that he is gay – and that he tried to kill himself twice as he struggled to accept his sexual orientation.

The 45-year-old, known as the Flying Scotsman, has twice won the world individual pursuit title and has also twice broken the world hour record.

He told the Scottish Sun that his suicide attempts were linked to his sexual orientation.

“I was brought up thinking you’d be better dead than gay,” he said. “I must have known I was gay and it was so unacceptable.

“I was brought up by a war generation – they grew up when gay people were put in jail. Being homosexual was so unthinkable that you just wouldn’t be gay. I’d no inkling about anything, I just closed down.

“People say, ‘How can you be gay and be married and have kids and not know it?’

“But when I went to my psychologist she reckoned I had the emotional age of about 13 because I’d just closed down.”

Obree, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, said he came out to his wife and family in 2005 after seeing a psychologist. He has now divorced his wife.

He said: “It did create a bit of tension. My parents had to come to terms with the whole gay thing, it’s been a journey for them.

“It was difficult and there were lots of tears. It wasn’t easy. But the relationship with my parents has been improved by it.

“We talked about it and discussed things and we’re a lot happier.”

-Pink News, UK

Out in Sport: German Footballer Urges Honesty

When the Welsh rugby captain, Gareth Thomas, publicly came out as gay, his move was widely commended. Then and since, I saw several press reports speculating on the possibility of prominent professional footballers (as in "soccer" players) following his lead. The prognosis was gloomy. Football has a notably more macho culture, and the fans (especially the British) have a lamentable reputation for thuggish behaviour. In the UK, explicitly racist and homophobic abuse by some fans is a sufficiently serious problem that the Football Association has a formal program in place to combat it.

Even in football though, times are changing. The German professional footballer Mario Gomez has made an impassioned public plea for his closeted colleagues to come out. It will bring them, he says, a feeling of liberation that will leave them better players.

Gomez, who has not said whether he is gay, told a German magazine that being honest about their sexuality would improve gay players' performance.

"They would play as if they had been liberated," Gomez said. "Being gay should no longer be a taboo topic."

-Guardian

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Perhaps. Two other German professional footballers, and the national federation, have taken a contrary view. Phillip Lahm (the national captain at the World Cup) and Tim Wiese, the goalkeeper for the national side, have both said that any player who came out would come under unbearable pressure from the fans. The last time a German player outed himself (Marcus Urban, way back in 1997), it immediately ended his career. For the last British player to go public, it may have ended his life. John Fashanu outed himself in 1990 when a tabloid newspaper paid him a six figure fee to do so. Some years later, young man accused him of sexual assault. Fashanu denied the allegation, and killed himself.

Will it be easier now? Probably somewhat, but not too not much - at least not yet.  In other fields, progress has been remarkable. Germany now has an openly gay vice-Chancellor, and Berlin a gay mayor. In many countries, openly gay or lesbians in politics, in the judiciary, in business and even in the Church are now commonplace. For most young people, being gay is just not an issue. Although homophobic bullying remains a serious problem which drives some young people into serious depression and possibly suicide, for countless others, coming out in adolescence is made easier by the proliferation of gay-straight alliances - and by the increasing number of positive adult role models they now see around them, encounter in the news media, or meet in fiction or on-screen.

This is why Gomez' call for his colleagues to come out is important: every single one who does makes it easier for the young people who follow. I'm not holding my breath for German (or British) footballers to take up the challenge just yet, but there will surely be some in time, and probably sooner Here at  It's a Queer World, I have been gathering short notes on prominent gay lesbian and trans people across all fields and occupations. I have so far just barely scratched the surface, but already I have been amazed at the number of examples I have found from sport. The lesbian tennis players Martina Navratilova and Billie-Jean King are the obvious and best-known, but there are many others, both male and female, from a wide range of sporting codes. See, for instance, John Amaechi, Professional Basketball Player, Matthew Mitcham, Olympic Diver, and Renée Richards, Pioneer Trans Athlete. These are just a handful of posts I have up so far - there are many more in preparation.

(Matt and Andrej Koymasky have an exhaustive listing of LGBT biographies you could explore - but be warned that not all their inclusions as "gay" are substantiated. (Some appear to be based on no more than rumour, and very few give a source). Still, the sheer number of their entries for sport is breathtaking).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/nov/11/germany-bayern-mario-gomez-gay-footballers

Recommended Books

Crompton, Louis: Homosexuality and Civilization

Dubermann, Martin: Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past (Meridian)

Miller, Neill: Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present

Naphy, William: Born to be Gay: A History of Homosexuality (Revealing History)

Stern, Keith: Queers in History

Related articles

• Germany and Bayern star Mario Gomez urges gay footballers to go public (guardian.co.uk)
• Mario Gomez urges gay football players to come out (telegraph.co.uk)
• Darren Purse on the game's last taboo (guardian.co.uk)
• Homophobia Still Common In World Of Football (news.sky.com)
• Gareth Thomas: a league of his own (guardian.co.uk)