Blind hatred and ignorant prejudice are deadly in today’s sports world, despite the Bible-beaters who would scoff that the problem is being overblown and exaggerated in this day and age. Here are two prime and all too true examples taken from recent headlines of tough and popular current world famous sports heroes, told in their own words, who almost took their own lives more than once rather than crack open that closet door.
Gay sports hero Andrew Goldstein was at one time the only major team sports person to be out of the closet while still playing as an MVP/All-American goalie for Dartmouth. He tells in his video of times when suicide was preferable to being branded a faggot or worse by his teammates. Goldstein relates how he grew up in a time when athletes were taught that the word “gay” meant stupid or weak. Fags existed to be depantsed in high school hallways or to have their heads forcibly shaven. If you listened to the venom in your friends’ voices, to be queer was to be spat on, beaten up and verbally pummeled every day of your life.
Following in the ultra-masculine footsteps of Australia’s openly gay hero Ian Roberts, comes 36-year-old Welsh hero Gareth Thomas, proudly flashing a smile featuring his famous trademark – two missing front teeth to a stadium packed with thousands of his fans roaring, “ALFIE! ALFIE! ALFIE! ALFIE!!!” As a player he is the personification of the word “fierce.” He is a versatile rugby footballer at fullback, center or wing and is also one of only a handful of openly gay professional athletes to come out of the closet while still playing. In 2007, Thomas scored a legendary try during the Rugby World Cup that earned him his 100th rugby union international cap. Currently he is a star for the Crusaders in Europe’s Super League after playing for Wales and the Cardiff Blues.
He lived and breathed rugby from his youngest boyhood fantasies. Family genetics, a talent for tactics, and hard work gave him the magnificent body required to conquer a brutal game so tough that it made the American version of it with its pads and helmets look like a school kid’s match of flag football at a junior high school gym class. Within his mind, alternately real and imagined self-righteous, pious and judgmental monsters in the dark constantly threatened to sweep all of his rabid fans and athletic accomplishments away.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jet Gardner
If someone had told me a year ago I'd be making my BC comeback in Sports, I'd have laughed in their face. Thanks to all for the encouragement!
Jet
2 - Lynn Voedisch
Good job, Jet. I knew you could do it.
3 - Steve
It will be interesting to see how everyone handles the case of an active player coming out. Seems to be safer at this time to wait until you retiree to make your status known.
4 - Jet Gardner
An American active player would be nice. Maybe they can take Gareth Thomas' example.
5 - SenoraG
Hi Jet...I don't know anything about sports but I still wanted to welcome you back! Keep up the great work!
6 - Jet Gardner
Thanks, much appreciated. You might enjoy their stories any way...
7 - fcetier
I hope this article does as well as the predecessor. Best of luck, Jet!
8 - Jet Gardner
Our channel 10 newscaster baked a sheet of cookies on her car dashboard for the 6 o'clock news team
9 - Jet Gardner
Thanks to all for your support on my comeback! To keep up to date on the latest worldwide news about gay athletes come visit at 1000 Gay Headlines
And thanks again!
Jet
10 - Jet Gardner
It would make sense to give gay couples tax breaks since with all of our discressionary spending we'd hire maids and gardeners and buy more clothes and stuff
11 - Jet Gardner
Since gays will soon be serving openly in the military, they'll cut the defense budget.
12 - Jet Gardner
Click here for an inspiring video bio of Gareth Thomas
13 - Jet Gardner
NEWS BULLETIN---STANDARD AND POOR HAS DOWNGRADED THE U.S. TO AA FROM AAA!
14 - Jet Gardner
Updated: Friday, August 5, 8:18 PM
CNN broke into programming with them announcing that S&P had actually done it...
Here is the only article I can find with any details from half an hour ago...
Standard & Poor’s plans to enact the first downgrade of the U.S. sterling credit rating was delayed Friday night when the Treasury Department said that it had found a math error in the firm’s calculations, according to news reports.
The White House was bracing for the downgrade, the reports said, after S&P officials advised the Treasury that it had decided to lower the AAA credit rating, which the U.S. government has held for 70 years. S&P decided to lower the rating after a bipartisan debt deal signed into law this week failed to assuage concerns about the nation’s growing
15 - Jet Gardner
God help us all
16 - Jet Gardner
The downgrade was due to a screwed up calculation at Standard and Poor's-Let's see how long it takes the Republicans to blame Obama...
17 - Jet Gardner
Latest, The treasury department caught the S&P error and when they reported it back, that's when S&P downgraded us.
It's my opinion that this was done to embarrass the president and draw attention away from their own math mistake.
Credit card companies will use this as an excuse to raise finance rates.
Banks will use this as an excuse to lower savingings interest paid
...and thanks to the GOP led house, Millionaires are the only ones who won't be hurt by this.
...and thanks to the slim margin and filibuster ability of the GOP in the Senate, they'll be powerless too.
18 - Jet Gardner
Should I begin to question why I even bothered to come back?
19 - Igor
I thought S&P was pretty well discredited about 3 years ago when they were giving out AAA ratings to Lehman and various other scams. In a Just World they´d all be in prison for fraud.
Would YOU invest in anything based on S&Ps rating?
So I thought they just switched to political propaganda, where there seems to be no justice at all.
20 - Jet Gardner
And you can bet the right wing will squeeze everything they can out of it with disinformation.
21 - Jet Gardner
About 200 active-duty troops and veterans wearing T-shirts advertising their branch of service marched in San Diego's gay pride parade with American flags and rainbow banners, marking what is believed to be the first time a military contingent has participated in such an event in the U.S.
Many of the active-duty troops said they were moved to come out because it is time to end the military's ban on openly gay troops.
National Guard member Nichole Herrera, 31, said she didn't think twice about marching, even though the policy is back on the books. She said she was "choked up" several times as she walked down a main thoroughfare in San Diego, a major Navy port.
"This is one of the proudest days in my life. It's time for it (the policy) to be gone," Herrera said. "I'm a soldier no matter what, regardless of my sexual orientation."
The crowd roared as the group waving military flags and holding placards identifying their military branch walked past the thousands.
Every branch of service was represented, including the Coast Guard. Marines and sailors ran out carrying their branch's flags over their heads.
22 - Jet Gardner
WHY when we're trying to concentrate on what we're reading are we being bombarded with audio form ads on the fresh comments page?
23 - Jet Gardner
DETAILS OF GADDAFI'S CAPTURE AND DEATH... according to Reuter's... I wish I had time to publish a separate article...
Shortly before dawn prayers on Thursday, Gaddafi surrounded by a few dozen loyal bodyguards and accompanied by the head of his now non-existent army Abu Bakr Younis Jabr broke out of the two-month siege of Sirte and made a break for the west.
But they did not get far.
NATO said its aircraft struck military vehicles belonging to pro-Gaddafi forces near Sirte at about 8:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) on Thursday, but the alliance said it was unsure whether the strikes had killed Gaddafi.
Fifteen pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns lay burned out, smashed and smoldering next to an electricity sub station some 20 meters from the main road, about two miles west of Sirte.
They had clearly been hit by a force far beyond anything the motley army the former rebels have assembled during eight months of revolt to overthrow the once feared leader.
But there was no bomb crater, indicating the strike may have been carried out by a helicopter gunship, or had been strafed by a fighter jet.
Inside the trucks still in their seats sat the charred skeletal remains of drivers and passengers killed instantly by the strike. Other bodies lay mutilated and contorted strewn in the grass. Some 50 bodies in all.
Gaddafi himself and a handful of his men escaped death and appeared to have ran through a stand of trees toward the main road and hid in the two drainage pipes.
But a group of government fighters were on their tail.
"At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use," said Salem Bakeer, while being feted by his comrades near the road. "Then we went in on foot.
"One of Gaddafi's men came out waving his rifle in the air and shouting surrender, but as soon as he saw my face he started shooting at me," he told Reuters.
"Then I think Gaddafi must have told them to stop. 'My master is here, my master is here', he said, 'Muammar Gaddafi is here and he is wounded'," said Bakeer.
"We went in and brought Gaddafi out. He was saying 'what's wrong? What's wrong? What's going on?'. Then we took him and put him in the car," Bakeer said.
At the time of capture, Gaddafi was already wounded with gunshots to his leg and to his back, Bakeer said.
Other government fighters who said they took part in Gaddafi's capture, separately confirmed Bakeer's version of events, though one said the man who ruled Libya for 42 years was shot and wounded at the last minute by one of his own men.
"One of Muammar Gaddafi's guards shot him in the chest," said Omran Jouma Shawan.
Army chief Jabr was also captured alive, Bakeer said. NTC officials later announced he was dead.
Fallen electricity cables partially covered the entrance to the pipes and the bodies of three men, apparently Gaddafi bodyguards lay at the entrance to one end, one in shorts probably due to a bandaged wound on his leg.
Four more bodies lay at the other end of the pipes. All black men, one had his brains blown out, another man had been decapitated, his dreadlocked head lying beside his torso.
Joyous government fighters fired their weapons in the air, shouted "Allahu Akbar" and posed for pictures. Others wrote graffiti on the concrete parapets of the highway.
"Gaddafi was captured here," said one simply.
From there Gaddafi was taken to the nearby city of Sirte where he and his dwindling band of die-hard supporters had made a last stand under a rain of missile and artillery fire in a desperate two-month siege.
Video footage showed Gaddafi, dazed and wounded, but still clearly alive and gesturing with his hands as he was dragged from a pick-up truck by a crowd of angry jostling group of government soldiers who hit him and pulled his hair.
He then appeared to fall to the ground and was enveloped by the crowd. NTC officials later announced Gaddafi had died of his wounds after capture.
24 - Jet Gardner
Gareth Thomas is retiring from rugby - one of only a few professional athletes to come out gay during their careers, has retired from rugby, the UK's Daily Mail reported.
“We can confirm that Gareth Thomas is officially retiring from both international and club rugby with immediate effect,” Emanuele Palladino, a rep from Thomas' management company, said in a statement. “This marks the end of what has been a remarkable career for a remarkable person.”
The Welshman played rugby league for the Crusaders in Europe's Super League and previously played rugby union for the Cardiff Blues and Wales.
“If you can't give 100 percent to rugby then you can't do it justice,” the 37-year-old Thomas told the paper. “This is a sad day but I know that my time has come to an end as a player.”
“My passion for the amazing game will never end or leave me, however,” he added.
Thomas came out gay nearly two years ago and over the summer he told the Mirror that he had made the right decision.
“It's been the best few years of my life since I came out,” Thomas said with a smile. “Coming out gave me a sense of relief and pride to be able to walk down the street. The curb used to be my best friend when I wasn't out. I would be ashamed and walk with my head down. I didn't want people to see me or to be recognized.”
“Now I'm walking with pride. If people recognize me now they maybe recognize me as a rugby player or an inspiring proud gay man. I'm proud to be recognized for who I am.”
25 - Jet Gardner
Give Penn State an EMPTY stadium this Saturday. I call for all Ohio State fans and all Penn State Fans to boycott the coming OHIO state Penn State Game.
WE WANT JOE BACK!!! WE WANT JIM TRESSEL BACK!!!
Jim Tressel did NOT send his players to a tattoo shop to trade Ohio State memoriabilia for free tattoos, but he was unfairly fired. Joe Paterno did NOT molest any little boys in the showers either.
According to the “acquaintance molester” profile, it’s a mistake to place all of the blame on Paterno personally. Paterno was perhaps in the worst position to see or judge the alleged behavior, because Sandusky was his valued assistant from 1966-1999.
It’s hard to identify those people close to you as a potential molester, because you know them so well, No one wants to believe such a thing of a friend.
Which is exactly why someone at Penn State’s institutional level should have done better. It was the responsibility of Paterno’s more dispassionate superiors Spanier, Schultz and Curley to take a much colder-eyed, distanced organizational view of Sandusky’s alleged behavior. Instead, they failed all along the line.