Gay athletes headed for out-field

By Alicia Ebaugh
Reporter Staff

The day when athletes currently playing on sports teams can come out and be accepted may be closer than most people think.

But Ed Gray, a former sports reporter for the Boston Herald, said league officials need to address the fact that homophobia exists in sports, and set policies against discrimination.

“The last bastion of ultra-masculine sexuality is chipping away slowly,” said panelist Jim Buzinski, co-founder of Outsports.com, a Web site dedicated to building a gay sports community.

Karen Bailis, news editor at Newsday and NLGJA’s national treasurer, moderated a Friday discussion that delved into the difficulties those involved in sports face while covering LGBT issues — including coming out.

At the standing-room-only “Out on the Playing Field and in the Press Box,” Gray and Roy Simmons, a former offensive lineman for the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins, shared their stories about how they told the world they were gay.

“It was constant stress, wondering who was watching, asking ‘Does anyone know I’m gay?’ ” said Simmons, who is one of only three former professional football players to publicly make the announcement. “It was a lot of paranoia, a lot of sleepless nights, but it was time. I had to do it for myself.”

Gray said he decided to come out in a Boston Herald column after 23 years of sports reporting because he was tired of hiding who he was.

“I wanted to write a column about it because I wanted to send a message about homophobia in sports,” he said. “Homophobia in sports has been allowed to run unchecked. Athletes make homophobic remarks and apologize to their teammates for making a distraction instead of apologizing to the people they’ve hurt.”