Being Gay in Tennis

I'm still feeling a bit under the weather, but I wanted to mention this really great interview with out Tennis legend Billie Jean King.

Among other things, King discusses the need for top players to support gay players:

What's the biggest difference you see today compared to 1981? Or even 1999, when Amelie came out?
I lost endorsements before. Because I'm gay, I get endorsements now. I had three commercials this last year. I'm 64. If you're an older women you don't get any endorsements. Unless it's Depends (laughs). The [gay] community is more powerful. More people are out, they're making things happen.

I know everyone's talked about it before – just saying, “I wonder who will do it and when?” We know a couple of guys who have been gay but they couldn't do it. They couldn't do it. It's tough, man. I think everyone should come out on their own terms. Obviously I feel that way because I didn't. I would never out someone. I lived it.

What's it going to take for a gay male player to come out?

We're never going to be 50 percent of the population. We need straight people, particularly in the male arena, to support the gay guys. They have to. And if they stand up for us, that's how we gain acceptance. We need our friends, or brothers and sisters, especially if they have influence. Federer and Nadal and those guys have to say we don't care. Once the influence starts to talk like that, it makes a huge difference.

It's got to be the top players. [They] influence where the tour goes. That's part of the responsibility of being in the Top 10, the Top 5 in the world. That goes hand in hand with making the big bucks, getting the most exposure, getting the most endorsements. That's part of the deal, I think, if you're going to be in that position. And our job in that position is to stick up for whoever is getting a bad deal.

It wouldn't hurt if the gay player was the top player

I wish we could get a guy at the top of his game just saying I'm gay, let's move on, next. But it's got to be while he's playing. While he's at the top of his game. But they're going to take a lot of heat, man.

The first is always a breakthrough. There's always a shift when that happens. It's a little bit like an earthquake in a way. But it's not going to be as big an earthquake today as it would've been years ago. What the seismic equation is, I don't know.

As time keeps moving forward, it will be easier than it was five years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, and then for all the different people before. We stand on their shoulders. And you want the kids to stand on yours.

Good News

It has been a really long day for me, but there were a few things I wanted to mention tonight.

First, in all my complaining yesterday about As the World Turns' inexplicable win of a Writers Guild of America award, I forgot to mention that there was some good news as well. Dustin Lance Black won the award for Best Original Screenplay for Milk! He also won a special award for work that highlights civil rights issues.

After reading this piece about Black's acceptance speech, I think I officially have a new hero! I really hope he is able to give a similar speech on Oscar night.

More good news: Matthew Mitcham finally got a corporate sponsorship months after bringing home the gold in the summer Olympics. It's ridiculous that it took this long, but I'm glad that it finally happened.

All About Sports

Well, the look on his face says it all. My guy Andy Roddick lost in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, to Roger Federer. At least he made it to the semi-finals this year, though, and not surprisingly he managed to remain hot while doing so!

Speaking of athletes, openly gay Olympic Gold Medalist Matthew Mitcham is the subject of the cover story in the next issue of The Advocate, and Towelroad has a preview that includes a shot of the cover:
Wow! If you'll recall, I chose Matthew as my Hottest Athlete of 2008 and this certainly puts him in the running for 2009 as well!

I think it's amazing that Matthew is completely open and honest about being gay in the world of sports, something that certainly puts him in the minority among LGBT athletes.

Meanwhile, another Australian Olympic Gold medalist, Ian Thorpe, has officially denied that he's gay for like the 94th time, or something close to that number. The latest denial was prompted when pictures of him and his roommate of three years, Brazilian swimmer Daniel Mendes, were published, the insinuation being that the two- who also travel together, including spending a month in Brazil with Daniel's family for Christmas- are more than just friends.

Here's part of what Thorpe had to say:

"I have only commented on this issue at this time because I draw a line when innuendo implicates people like my family and my friends.

"I find this kind of inaccurate speculation tiresome and I am annoyed by the hurt it has caused those closest to me."

This irritates me, because he makes it sound like they're being accused of something that's bad rather than of being in love.

It might help, Ian, if you didn't play the old telltale pronoun game. Last summer he told an Australian newspaper that he was dating 'someone special' but that "they don't live in this country." They, not she. Not surprisingly, that caused an increase in speculation about his sexuality, so he later clarified in another interview that it was a she.

If there were more athletes like Matthew Mitcham around, we could pay less attention to the Ian Thorpes of the sporting world. He could frolic on the beach with his long term roommate all he wanted and no one would even care if he was gay or straight, not if there were plenty of other out role models for aspiring LGBT athletes to look up to.