Why do you think there are virtually no openly gay athletes in professional sports?

  • Shianne Kruger, first-year student

    They’d be kind of singled out, I think.

  • Melissa Suggitt, fourth-year student, business

    I think it’s probably the stigma attached to it. The whole ‘macho-ism’ of sports … I can just see them worrying their fans would judge them instead of taking them seriously as an athlete.

  • Mary Burton

    I don’t think it’s a problem with the sports culture so much as society in general. People find it hard to accept anything that’s unknown — it’s scary to them.

  • Brett Hendrickson, first-year student

    It’s definitely the culture. (In sports culture) there’s all these negative associations with the word gay. Like, ‘That’s so gay’. It would be pretty huge if an active professional athlete stepped up and came out.

Published in Volume 67, Number 3 of The Uniter (September 19, 2012)

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