Whats the state of the gay sports world in the summer of 2007?
I think it depends on what you mean by that. Gay athletes, the weekend warriors if you will, are doing great. Gay sports have never been bigger. There are tournaments going on around the country every weekend of the year. The opportunities for gay people to get into sports have never been greater. For the sports fan, and this would be similar for the elite gay athlete, sports have changed a lot. There are gay-friendly voices that are willing to speak and have gotten louder in recent years, certainly in reaction to Tim Hardaway’s reaction to John Amaechi’s coming out. They certainly made themselves heard. I haven’t heard a negative story of an athlete coming out of the closet in high school, professional or collegiate athletics in at least eight years. But there is still this perception that homophobia is rampant in sports, and as long as that perception exists, that sports are an unfriendly area to be, or at least perceived to be unfriendly, it’s there and it affects people. So in that
