I was watching "Real Sports" with Bryant Gumbel today, and they had a segment on Welsh Rugby player, Gareth Thomas, the only openly gay professional athlete on a sports team to come out during his career. Isn't that a sad fact that of all the professional sports teams all across the world, players are getting the same feeling, that the climate is such that coming out does not feel safe. 
Jackie Robinson, the first Black Major League Baseball player, was hand chosen because they thought he had the right kind of character to respond to the bigotry and threats. This is what I think we need in all of our sports, a pioneer. After all, it isn't surprising that such a manly endeavor as sporting events has had a long history of intolerance of homosexuals, but I have found that even the least tolerant people can change their tune quickly when they are thrown into a situation where they have to become close to a homosexual - and find them to be just like anyone else. On this same show, I was surprised to learn how widespread racism is in soccer, where Black players have bananas thrown at them at games, they are spit on, and people make monkey noises every time they get near the ball. They even showed entire sections of Nazi party people who hold up offensive signs.
Anyway, back to the homosexual thing, I think that guys really think that they can't have a gay man in the locker room because he won't be able to contain himself around all those naked men. Really? Get over yourself, guys. Your penis isn't all that great. Especially after all those steroids.
