How many women have unknowingly contracted STDs by sleeping with a gay or bisexual man who passed themself off as straight?
If they want to live normal lives, yes it does. I'm sorry -- people are idiots.
The more announcements are made, the more they keep the issue at the forefront instead of just coming out with their teams and letting it become "normal", as they want it to be.
It will never normalize until they stop acting like it isn't just a part of everyday life -- it is, and has always been for freaking centuries.
Yeah, straight guys never have STDs...
But homosexuality is essentially an abnormal condition, so any claim to normalcy should be well salted.
At any rate, I don't think this is about gays wanting to be normalized, although some have certainly deluded themselves into believing that homosexuality is just as normal as heterosexuality.
It's about gays wanting to be accepted for who, and what they are.
Well, what I mean that gays have been around for as long as anyone can remember. "Coming out" as gay isn't anymore surprising than the sky being blue.
No matter how often you repeat this fallacy, it is still not true. Ask anyone who has come out (you know, the token gay people you claim to know) = coming out is not easy, nor is the reaction glossed over or unsurprising.
Some people lose their family, some people lose their friends, some people lose their jobs, some people are harassed...on the other hand, some people are accepted by the people in their lives and treated indifferent. It's a total roll of the dice.
Uh.. I didn't say coming out was easy. I said, having homosexuals in our presence isn't anything new.
Are you denying this?
Something odd here. Advocates for gay rights etc consistently claim that their objective is a world where no one would care if the guy was gay. Well, now that this guy has said so the only people making a big deal out of this are pro-gay types.
I'm amused by those who think this is a big deal, some of ground breaking thing. We've long known about gay pro athletes, and this goes back decades.
And so many high profile people are 'out' that there can be no more ground broken.
Fern
I never said straight guys never have STDs.
It's a fact that the STD rate in the gay male community is FAR higher than in the heterosexual community..
No amount of political correctness is going to cover that up.
On the other hand, I see all this "hoopla" as just another manifestation of the attempted normalization of homosexuality. While homosexuals shouldn't be discriminated against, let us not deceive ourselves into believing that it is a normal behavior, the mere opposite of heterosexuality..
Eventually, Science is going to find the root cause of homosexuality (which mounting evidence points to epigenetics) and then people will be able to intervene and probably prevent a fetus from developing homosexual characteristics.
Announcing that he is gay is not a big deal. The reactions in this thread are what makes it a big deal still...
Uh.. I didn't say coming out was easy. I said, having homosexuals in our presence isn't anything new.
Are you denying this?
Coming out" as gay isn't anymore surprising than the sky being blue.
Which is a total lie - anyone who is gay can tell you that. As others had already said, you are far removed from this issue that your opinion has no factual basis.
He wasn't the first athelete/pesron to make his sexuality known... there was a female tennis player, John Amechi (though inactive at the time) so this it isn't new... and even a musician like Dave Koz, and the list goes on. I think there's a congressman or senator too, and he's black, though I forget his name.
Check your facts. So what if he's the first active player -- he wasn't THE first PLAYER (former or active) is what I mean, nor was he the first famous person, either.
http://www.queerattitude.com/society/famous.php
Look, I don't really care whether you think his announcement is a big deal or not... but please...
- If you do think it's a big deal, great... talk about it all you want and you won't look like an idiot.
- If you don't think it's a big deal, great... but repeatedly talking about how much it isn't a big deal to you makes you look dishonest and/or hypocritical at best and, at worst, makes you look like a dumbass.
Some of you just can't seem to stop talking about how it's not a big deal to you... and you look like dipshits as a result.
He wasn't the first athelete/pesron to make his sexuality known... there was a female tennis player, John Amechi (though inactive at the time) so this it isn't new... and even a musician like Dave Koz, and the list goes on. I think there's a congressman or senator too, and he's black, though I forget his name.
Check your facts. So what if he's the first active player -- he wasn't THE first PLAYER (former or active) is what I mean, nor was he the first famous person, either.
http://www.queerattitude.com/society/famous.php
Yes, and there was Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King and Greg Louganis and Britney Griner just a couple weeks ago. But Collins was the first man to do it in one of the four major team sports in America (NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL). And after he did it and most people went "whatever, no big deal," there were still high profile individuals who came out in opposition (Mike Wallace and Chris Broussard for example). The fact that no one has ever done it shows that sports, or at least the men's locker room, still has some semblance of a homophobic mentality that makes athletes uncomfortable to discuss alternative sexualities. It takes people coming out and breaking the silence to realize any change. Even if it isn't a big deal to you, it's a first step towards destroying prejudicial barriers, and that's not a bad thing.
Yes, and there was Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King and Greg Louganis and Britney Griner just a couple weeks ago. But Collins was the first man to do it in one of the four major team sports in America (NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL). And after he did it and most people went "whatever, no big deal," there were still high profile individuals who came out in opposition (Mike Wallace and Chris Broussard for example). The fact that no one has ever done it shows that sports, or at least the men's locker room, still has some semblance of a homophobic mentality that makes athletes uncomfortable to discuss alternative sexualities. It takes people coming out and breaking the silence to realize any change. Even if it isn't a big deal to you, it's a first step towards destroying prejudicial barriers, and that's not a bad thing.
Interesting you bring up the locker room. Are there going to be different locker rooms for these players? Therein lies the issue. Isn't comfort one of the main reasons why we have separate male and female locker rooms?
Interesting you bring up the locker room. Are there going to be different locker rooms for these players? Therein lies the issue. Isn't comfort one of the main reasons why we have separate male and female locker rooms?
Does the presence of gay men threaten your own masculinity?
I'd laugh if supposedly macho male professional athletes would act like such pussies and ask for or demand separate locker rooms.
If that happened, I'd ask for a magnifying glass to locate their balls.
I don't see how this issue of comfort has anything to do with masculinity.
What does macho male have to do with anything? Do they not have a right to no feel uncomfortable in the locker room?
Why don't we just have unisex locker rooms then? After all, its just because women would feel uncomfortable. Fuck em right, they are just a bunch of pussies!
Great argument.
I don't see how this issue of comfort has anything to do with masculinity.
Nice try duh-verting my question, however.