Yesterday, the San Francisco Giants, winners of last season's World Series, became the first American pro sports team to release a video for the project. It features pitcher Barry Zito and several of his teammates speaking out on the common themes of the project: highlighting homophobia and bullying, and declaring them unacceptable.
One Giants fan commenting on the YouTube was particularly appreciative:
I've been a Giants fan since my sister taught me the game when I was 8 (and I've been gay since forever). I cannot begin to describe how much this means to me, and will mean to scores of young gay sports fans.Some could snark and say that the Giants are not exactly going out on a limb, that "of course a team from San Francisco would put out the anti-gay video." That snark may have substance, but this is part of an emerging, and encouraging pattern in pro sports.
Last month, the president of the NBA's Phoenix Suns revealed that he is gay. So did a popular sports radio host and a former starter for the Villanova men's basketball team. Add on top of that the serious fines levied against two NBA stars for using homophobic slurs on the court, and you see that the culture -- even one as admittedly paleolithic as the locker room -- is starting to change.
It's a slow change, but long overdue. Arguably sports has led the way as far as social changes and tolerance: Joe Frasier, Jackie Robinson, Martina Navratilova, Wilt Chamberlain, but when it comes to gay men in team sports, that door has been welded shut for a very, very long time.
Perhaps that will change sooner than we think.
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