Tuesday, September 30, 2003
Boston writer comes out of closet
Associated Press
BOSTON -- A Boston Herald sports writer came out as gay in a
column Tuesday, saying he could no longer tolerate the "unabashed
homophobia" in professional sports.
"I just got to the point where I didn't want to be silent
anymore," Ed Gray, a 55-year-old reporter who has worked at the
Herald for about two decades, said in an interview Tuesday with The
Associated Press. "In the sports world, homophobia is tolerated."
He added: "It's the one minority that seems to be fair game."
In his column, Gray cited recent comments by New York Giants
tight end Jeremy Shockey, who was quoted calling Dallas Cowboys
coach Bill Parcells a "homo," and San Francisco 49ers running
back Garrison Hearst, who said, "I don't want any faggots on my
team." Neither was punished by the NFL. Shockey said he was
misquoted and Hearst apologized.
"I'm out because I can no longer, in good conscience, choose to
ignore the unabashed homophobia that is so cavalierly tolerated
within the world of sports," he said in the column. "I'm out
because the silence of a closeted gay man only serves to give his
implicit approval to bigotry."
Gray said his hope is that "major league sports address the
issue of homophobia and people who make overt homophobic remarks or
actions be held accountable."
Gray's primary beat is horse racing, but he has also written
about the Boston Red Sox and the New England Patriots. He said he
is not worried about how athletes will treat him after his column.
The column, headlined "Out and Proud," was displayed
prominently on the back page of the Herald.
"We support Eddie and we just thought it was the right thing to
do to give him the platform to express his views," said sports
editor Mark Torpey.
The column was discussed at length on local sports talk radio
Tuesday, and opinions was divided over whether Gray's column would
make him an outcast. But Torpey said, "We haven't had much
reaction one way or another."
"I'm out because I can't come up with a single logical reason
why I should have denied myself the right to live and work as
openly and freely as everyone else," Gray wrote. "Nor should
anyone find a reason why an openly gay athlete should be denied the
right to play a team sport without fear of becoming a target of
prejudice or physical harm."
He noted that no active player in major team sports has
announced he is gay, though some have done so after retirement.
"Somehow, a gay teammate is only regarded as a threat if he is
honest and a stand-up guy, qualities that are usually valued in
team sports," he wrote. He added that any frenzy caused by an
athlete announcing he is gay could be quickly defused.
"How long would a gay player be such a distraction if all of
his teammates rallied around him for the whole world to witness?"
he asked.
Few sports writers are openly gay, and L.Z. Granderson, a gay
sports columnist for Access Atlanta, the entertainment tabloid of
the Atlanta Journal Constitution, said the machismo that is part of
pro sports extends to journalists.
Granderson said there has been no negative reaction from
athletes to his homosexuality. He revealed his own sexual
orientation writing about competing in basketball in the Gay Games,
and also in response to a group of Atlanta Thrashers hockey players
he was with at a bar who asked why he was showing little interest
in the women there.
He said Gray's column can help dispel the stereotype that gay
people do not fit into the sports world.
