In honor of National Coming Out Week, I wanted to share this
awesome yet almost sad story in the grand scheme of things.
The NCAA can now boast about its first openly gay player,
Derek Schell! As his story explains, Derek went to a Catholic high school, where
it was extremely hard for him because of the still oppressive society that we
live in today. It is sad to me to think that we live in a world where gay slurs
are still part of a societal norm… Hell, it saddens me to think of all the
derogatory slurs against women and African Americans that are still used to
this day!
Nevertheless, Derek received a surprisingly positive
reaction from each of his basketball teammates and his coaches when he was able
to come out to them. I think it is absolutely incredible that the NCAA has its
first openly gay player. I hope that this form of activism encourages other
basketball players, not only in the NCAA but across the nation, to become much
more comfortable in their sexuality and have the courage to come out as well.
As we discussed many forms of activism in this class, I think this is a perfect
form, showing how a celebrity can be an activist simply by discussing the
oppressive issues he faced and how he overcame them.
The sad thing about this story? That this is the first
openly gay NCAA player. Wake up, people! It is 2013, and I think it is pretty
ridiculous how oppressive our society still is to this day just because a
person is attracted to someone of the same sex.
I had this discussion with my friend about National Coming
Out Week, and no matter how incredible I think it is, I told him that I will be
extremely excited for the day when every single day can be National Coming Out
Day because people will no longer give a fuck about sexual orientation!
But here is three cheers for Derek for having the courage to
be the first NCAA player to come out! His actions, especially as a male
athlete, are absolutely incredible and a fantastic form of the new types of
activism that we are beginning to see today.
Three cheers for Derek is right!!! The more players come out of the closet the easier life seems to be for the gay community. For some reason there is a HUGE hype around sports players being almost god-like. The more openly gay players the easier it may be for a young woman, or man to questions/confront their sexuality. I agree that it is awful that we are in 2013, and a large amount of people take issue to same-sex relations. Personally I believe that the hatred/ignorance stems from religious norms. The more higher ranking individuals leave the closet behind, so may a lot of individuals leave their ignorance behind.
ReplyDeleteYAY! I cannot wait for a day when an openly gay athlete doesn't make news! It always comes back to this ultra masculine persona with athletes. If men have to be masculine, athletes need to be beyond masculine. This is just awesome news.
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