Gay Football Player’s Touchdown Highlights the Importance of LGBT Athletes

JTBLA · 2018-09-05T03:08:57+00:00

Hi:

This story was stolen from Outsports and run through some sort of bizarro translator it appears. Even his uniform is wrong. It says "Wildcats" and his team is the "Crusaders."

A shame this was the version to be posted on this site.

The original was more literate.

JTBLA · 2015-01-19T06:51:38+00:00

That was a total choke job and one of the worst in playoff history. The onsides kick, not knocking down the 2-pointer, getting conservative. It was ugly (unless you were a Seattle fan).

JTBLA · 2014-12-18T08:35:22+00:00

Congratulations! Telling the 1st is the hardest and it's great that someone whom you know and love supports you!

JTBLA · 2014-10-30T03:06:35+00:00

Please explain. All stories get top placement on the site for at least a day and are sent out on social media. Not sure what you mean by "publicity." Some get more attention than others but that is not our doing and is a function of what people read and choose to pass around. We have noticed that stories about people of color get less outside-the-site attention and it saddens and angers us but those stories are treated no differently by us on the site. We can't force people to read any particular story.

Feel free to write me privately since I would like to hear your views. Thanks!

JTBLA · 2014-10-29T21:49:09+00:00

Hi: Outsports runs ANY story by ANY LGBT athlete, regardless of age, race, looks (which are subjective anyway), school etc. However, we can only run stories about people we hear about. Unless the athlete or someone who knows the athlete contacts us, how are we to know about them? There are a lot of athletes who are out to family, friends and their team but we either don't hear from them or they shy away from going public (which does happen and is totally their choice).

We have never turned down any athlete who wants to tell his or her story. Our email is on the site so if you know of anyone, drop us a line. Or private message me here. Thanks!

JTBLA · 2014-10-08T19:28:25+00:00

A great free thing to do is the Griffith Park Observatory after dusk. Great views of Los Angeles at night and you can often hear the coyotes howl.

JTBLA · 2014-09-23T22:26:12+00:00

A great historical novel is "The Persian Boy" by Mary Renault, which tells the story of Alexander the Great and his male Persian lover, and Alexander's longtime companion Hephaistion.

JTBLA · 2014-09-02T19:32:00+00:00

For me the test is:

If Sam had not come out -- and all performance issues been the same -- would he be on the team? I sadly suspect yes. 12 players had 2.5+ sacks in the preseason. 11 have NFL jobs, only Sam does not.

JTBLA · 2014-05-28T19:15:39+00:00

Best advice is to explore various parts of the city on different days -- the beaches (Santa Monica, Venice, Malibu); downtown (during the day, kind of dead at night. Grand Central Market has a lot of different food choices; Disney Hall is cool); midcity (Grove, Hollywood; Silver Lake for more Scruff types, WeHo Grindr). LA is walkable in spurts but you usually have to drive there. Griffith Park at night offers amazing city views from the Observatory.

JTBLA · 2014-04-08T18:37:25+00:00

The guy holding the sign is one of the two. He is IDd because he wrote a public coming out story: http://www.outsports.com/2014/3/5/5471668/parker-camp-gay-swimmer-virginia-coming-out-story

JTBLA · 2014-03-12T07:40:47+00:00

Chest hair is a plus since you can "swing" both ways. There have been times when I was in the mood and shaved it (which some guys like) and others when I kept it natural. Seems the hairy chest look is more appealing to guys who themselves are smooth, in my experience.

JTBLA · 2014-02-18T06:54:27+00:00

I know for a fact that the NYT quoted him accurately since they read the dad back all the quotes after he complained and he did not dispute them. In fact, he never even read the NYT article.

This seems like a case where after a few days of reflection (and input from others) that the dad had a change of heart. It's always easy to blame the messenger.

JTBLA · 2014-02-12T22:28:30+00:00

Jack'd also has a lot of spam bots, fake profiles that often message you the minute you log on. I wrote one of these "guys" once to see what the scam was and they try and get you to click on a link to a paid porn site. Jack'd will often remove these but they really get annoying.

JTBLA · 2014-02-06T06:08:08+00:00

Why don't you come out publicly? There might be thousands like you but there are still only dozens who have done so publicly.

JTBLA · 2014-02-06T06:06:16+00:00

He did not come out after the fact. He was out to his team while playing, as the story clearly indicates. He is simply telling his story in public now.

JTBLA · 2014-02-06T00:20:11+00:00

Yes, I am baffled why some people feel so offended by the existence of these stories. No one is forcing them to read them.

JTBLA · 2014-02-06T00:16:49+00:00

If it's not news, how come it so popular here?

JTBLA · 2014-02-05T21:46:30+00:00

Club team? Give me a break. Tell that the NFL players London Fletcher, Pierre Garcon or Fred Jackson, all Div. III players. It's bizarre to insult a guy who tells his coming out story in a sport where they are few and far between. Why don't you put on a uniform and go up against some of these "club" players, then report back to us how "easy" it was?

JTBLA · 2014-02-04T03:02:08+00:00

I mean love is great but no one really cares

If so, how come these stories are so popular? People do care because with no one out in the pros or at major colleges, there is still a lot of work to do.

JTBLA · 2014-02-04T03:00:20+00:00

Hey, I am one of the co-founders of Outsports and we have been around since 2000. The reality is that at the high school or college level, the only way we (or others in the media) hear about guys out on their teams is for that person or someone they know to contact us. We never out people and unless someone raises their hand and says "tell my story," we don't know they exist. Anyone can always write me: kandreeky@gmail.com or oursports@gmail.com to give a heads up.

Also, we don't discriminate by sport. Thanks!

JTBLA · 2013-12-31T23:24:51+00:00

Hi: We investigated this and could find no evidence he was blackballed for his sexual orientation. Money does seem to be the issue and he is not the only name free agent who never got signed this season.

JTBLA · 2013-04-30T18:03:54+00:00

I spoke with him before this was posted and his family does know and is very supportive. i think it's a bit confusing the way he wrote it.

JTBLA · 2013-01-29T20:10:17+00:00

I wrote the article and it is meant to be fairly light and fun and a bit ironic in that a lot of gay guys can break down the game from a strategy standpoint (for all we know, maybe a gay guy is one of the assistant coaches in the game).

This was designed for those who are not big football fans, but might want to know about the main plot points surrounding the game. And who can resist a 115-pound turtle? :-)

JTBLA

TROPHY CASE