I’m not trying to diminish what Derrick Gordon did today in coming out about his sexuality. It took a lot of courage for the UMass player to announce that he is gay on ESPN’s SportsCenter and SB Nation’s Outsports this morning.
My hope, though, is at some point an athlete coming out won’t be a story that lights up Twitter and requires extensive interviews.
Here is Kate Fagan’s story and interview at ESPN.com.
Here is an interview Gordon did with SB Nation’s Outsports.
Gordon talked about how he was inspired by Jason Collins and Michael Sam. Hopefully, other gay athletes will be inspired by him and won’t feel as if they need to hide any secrets.
If that happens, an athlete’s sexuality becomes a non-story. All that should matter is whether he or she can play.
It’s news now because it has to be.
There is still a significant amount of homophobia in this country, and homophobia exists because of ignorance. People who don’t know of any gay people who live what the former would consider “normal” lives can still pigeonhole gay people as (almost literally) a breed apart, because such people are ignorant of the “normality” of gay people.
The more people who live “normal” lives who come out as gay, the more such ignorance will be fought, and the faster a person’s sexuality will become a non-issue. But because the ignorance is still widespread, it has to be an issue first for a time, and that time is now.
And that time will pass. Just not yet.