Imagine the backlash if the kid doesn't get drafted.

WebFire;1578531 wrote:Hide from what though? I don't hide from being a hetero until I announce it. Just live life. Be normal. If someone figures it out, tell them you are gay and move on.

I don't understand announcing it.

You don't have to hide because it is more common that a person is heterosexual. You don't look at someone like Michael Sam, a big football player, and first think gay man. He wants to be viewed as what he is, in his own words, "a proud openly gay man". I'm sure you wouldn't want people viewing you as a bigot or a homophobe if you weren't. This is why people say I am not a homophobe or I'm not a racist, because they don't want to be viewed as something they don't feel they are. Sam is proud of who he is and him coming out before he is drafted makes this situation less of a circus than if he would have been "outed".

WebFire;1578559 wrote:So no one should ever be bothered by anything ever? WTF kind of question is that?

Not by something that has no effect on their life whatsoever.

ernest_t_bass;1578693 wrote:Why do I have to accept gay sex, instead of just accepting the person who is gay?

I don't think anyone is asking you to accept the act.

se-alum;1578874 wrote:Because it's not the "norm". I agree with you, and think one day it won't be news, but we're far from that point. Anytime someone is something that 99% of the population is not, they're going to make news, especially in a situation like playing football.

I don't think it should ever be news. Just like anyone caught in infidelity shouldn't be news. Lolo's celibacy shouldn't be news. Let people live their lives.

Now, if someone wants to seek out "news" about any of these individuals, they can go to that media outlet and do it. Or, if media is going to cover "news" like this, then do it without bias.

lhslep134;1578877 wrote:You answered your own question. It's news because you're talking about it. It's news because someone decided to report on it. It's news because someone somewhere decided to put Michael Sam's words into print form.

Got any other questions with obvious answers?

Oh yeah, I answered my own huh? You're pretty cool too.

I'm only talking about it in this thread. And my question is why is this news any more than any other relational news is? Why not cover it all? I just want sports to be about sports.

Simple as that.

OSH;1578866 wrote:People are killed, hated, discriminated, condemned to hell and abandoned because of all sorts of reasons -- (ironically, the same can be said for numerous other belief systems). I don't see them making headline news from every media source, do you?

You continue to skirt around the numerous backgrounds I introduced -- various, with no real similarities between them except for how some received much coverage (Tiger) to little coverage (Wilt, Antonio, Lolo, Michael, and Muhammad). Heck, look at what The Bachelor even does with the media...and most news outlets have failed to report his 2 years of backed child support he was taken to court over (this guy had a sport background too). I don't care to hear about ANY of it (but you fail to recognize that too). I don't care about Lolo's love life. I don't care about Wilt's. I don't care about Tiger's. But, if you are going to cover one, why not cover all? Why not cover polygamist athletes too? Why just cover the homosexual athlete?

Who cares if he "got it out of the way" whenever or however he did? Why does it make a difference? That's my question. Why does it matter who sleeps with who and how they do it? I referred a statistic, and you discredited it...why? Do psychopaths not deserve the same attention or love that any other person should be getting too? Shouldn't we be bringing psychological issues to the forefront too? Shouldn't they have an outlet to go to and get support for?

I watch sports for the sport. I don't tune into sports for politics, religion, human sexuality, or economics. If I wanted any or all of those, I'd seek it out then. I would expect that to be covering all of what I want too.

I get that you don't care to hear about any of it, you are not the only person that tunes into sporting events. I get that it shouldn't be an issue as only people with small minds and lack of intelligence would care or worry about who someone loves or sleeps with but it has been an issue. Sports throughout history have crossed over into politics,religion,race and many other things other than just a sporting event sometimes even leading the way ahead of society. You are absolutely right that no one should care that he is gay. However, I know you are smart enough to realize that there are plenty of people who do care he is gay. There is a reason professional athletes have avoided coming out in the past.

I am not even going to entertain your psychopath rant. What was your point in even introducing this in the first place? Why didn't you just say homicidal serial killers? I am pretty sure if a athlete came out and said, Hey before you draft me, I am a psychopath who has had thoughts of murdering people and chopping them into pieces, I am sure that would be a pretty big story.

It is not that long ago it was a crime.
From the second half of the 13th century, death was the punishment for male homosexuality in most of Europe.
During
The Holocaust about 50,000 people were sentenced because of their homosexuality and several thousands of them died in concentration camps. Outside of the gay community, this persecution of homosexuals is usually ignored (see History of Gays during the Holocaust for more information). Conditions for gay men in the camps was especially rough; they faced not only persecution from German soldiers, but also other prisoners, and many gay men were reported to die of beatings. German soldiers were also known to use the pink triangles that the men were forced to wear for target practice with their weapons
the punishment for homosexuality in all American colonies was death.
The penalty for attempted sodomy (both homosexuality and bestiality) was prison, whipping, banishment, or fines. Thomas Jefferson suggested castration as the punishment for sodomy, rape, and polygamy in a proposed revision of the Virginia criminal code near the end of 18th Century
first state to repeal the death penalty for “sodomy” in 1786 and within a generation all the other colonies followed suit (except North and South Carolina that repealed after the Civil War).
The first prosecution for consensual sex between people of the same gender was not until 1880. This can be attributed to the purity movement which also explains the sharp increase in arrests for prostitution and homosexuality. In response to the visibility of alternative genders, gender bending, and homosexuality, a host of laws against vagrancy, public indecency, disorderly conduct, and indecent exposure were introduced across America as discourse for easier persecution. “Sodomy” laws also shifted in many states over the beginning of the 20th Century to specifically address homosexuality (many States during the 20th Century made anal intercourse between men and women legal). In some states, these laws would last until the Federal government repealed them in 2004 with the Lawrence decision.
By the 1930s both fruit and fruitcake terms as well as numerous other words are seen as not only negative but also to mean male homosexual,.although probably not universally. LGBT people were widely diagnosed as diseased with the potential for being cured, thus were regularly "treated" with castration, lobotomies,pudic nerve surgery, and electroshock treatment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_history#18th_and_19th_century
These states did not decriminalize homosexuality until 2003
Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia
　

pmoney25;1578888 wrote:I get that you don't care to hear about any of it, you are not the only person that tunes into sporting events. I get that it shouldn't be an issue as only people with small minds and lack of intelligence would care or worry about who someone loves or sleeps with but it has been an issue. Sports throughout history have crossed over into politics,religion,race and many other things other than just a sporting event sometimes even leading the way ahead of society. You are absolutely right that no one should care that he is gay. However, I know you are smart enough to realize that there are plenty of people who do care he is gay. There is a reason professional athletes have avoided coming out in the past.

I am not even going to entertain your psychopath rant. What was your point in even introducing this in the first place? Why didn't you just say homicidal serial killers? I am pretty sure if a athlete came out and said, Hey before you draft me, I am a psychopath who has had thoughts of murdering people and chopping them into pieces, I am sure that would be a pretty big story.

Isn't the point of this board for discussion? I am offering up my side of the discussion. I don't want anything to "cross over" to sports, unless I seek it out. Do I, absolutely. But, when I tune into SportsCenter, Mike & Mike, or whatever is supposed to be sports...I want sports. I want highlights. I don't want politics, religion, etc. I never once said that no one else should care...

And, you answered your own question...in a roundabout way. Why did I introduce a "psychopath rant?" Well...there is a reason why psychopaths have avoided coming out in the past. They've been neglected. They've been avoided. They've been abandoned. Why must we continue? I didn't say "homicidal serial killer" because psychopaths may not all be killers. So, you have really labeled them something they aren't. I'm sure homosexuals feel the same way. I also directly linked the psychopath statistic with a homosexual statistic...why am I not surprised you missed that? If 1% [or less than] of the population identifies as homosexual (as some statistics show) then why is it a big deal? Why is it news? Why isn't it major news in "outing" a psychopath (or trying to) when there's an estimated population that could potentially be 4x more than those that identify as homosexual?

Again, if we are going to be "fair" and "unbiased," why not treat all people groups as the same and give equal coverage? Or does it even matter? We probably need to try to identify the 17 NFL players who are homosexual or the 5 NBA players who happen to be homosexual. That is important because they need to "come out."

Christ Almighty...just STFU.

dwccrew;1578880 wrote: Not by something that has no effect on their life whatsoever.

I guess the entire OC site can be shut down then, if that's the criteria for discussion.

WebFire;1578774 wrote:Hey IWP, I am heterosexual!

I bet you've announced that in different ways before without realizing it. Anytime you've discussed a hot girl, your girlfriend/wife, etc you're making it known that you're straight. A gay dude does it and everyone flips out about him "shoving it in everyone's face". He's probably not, you just notice it because it's different.

That said I can't wait for this shit to not be a huge media event. It'll be much nicer when instead of having some whole segment of it on talk shows and shit it'll just be a little 5 second shot of a player's boyfriend in the stands, just like they sometimes do with their wives/girlfriends.

Hopefully we're pretty close to that time. I already feel that way personally since I don't see myself as a victim. Generally nobody cares that I like dudes and that's how it should be. Sure we'll sometimes get a name screamed at us from a car while we're walking to dinner or something but I feel like that would only bother me if my friends and family also took issue with my personal life. Since they don't I don't really care what someone who probably reads at a 4th grade level yells out their window. Beyond that the only things that I feel treated differently for are some legal issues like marriage, taxes, etc and those seem to be moving along pretty rapidly now.

TL;DR: Most people aren't throwing their gayness in your face, you just think they are. Also I haven't read it but I saw isadore post and I'm assuming he's talking about a holocaust and generally being exaggerated to the point of making his perhaps valid opinion seem untenable.

I Wear Pants;1578980 wrote:I bet you've announced that in different ways before without realizing it. Anytime you've discussed a hot girl, your girlfriend/wife, etc you're making it known that you're straight. A gay dude does it and everyone flips out about him "shoving it in everyone's face". He's probably not, you just notice it because it's different.

That's exactly my point. It's NOT like that. I wish they would just carry on with life, and if people figure out they are gay, so fucking what! But instead, they have to "announce" it, then it does make it into a huge media event. Just live life.

WebFire;1578985 wrote:That's exactly my point. It's NOT like that. I wish they would just carry on with life, and if people figure out they are gay, so fucking what! But instead, they have to "announce" it, then it does make it into a huge media event. Just live life.

Do you really think it wouldn't be made into a big deal if he just casually mentioned a boyfriend or something in an interview or in public? It definitely would regardless of whether it should, might as well get ahead of it and say it on his terms.

When we act that Sam’s announcement is not worthy of announcement, we should remember
it was only ten year since homosexual acts were crimes in several of our states. It took a Supreme Court decision to end them.
Hopefully we are reaching the day when to paraphrase MLK
where they will not be judged by their sexual orientation, but by the content of the character
Then we will be able to say a gay person is a complete a-hole without any allusions to his sexual orientation.

I Wear Pants;1579027 wrote:Do you really think it wouldn't be made into a big deal if he just casually mentioned a boyfriend or something in an interview or in public? It definitely would regardless of whether it should, might as well get ahead of it and say it on his terms.

It may for him once in the NFL, but then it would be a media problem (which is half the problem anyway). But I feel this way about everyone, not just celebs and athletes. It seems like a lot of gay people have to make it known they are gay. I think celebs/athletes announcing just fuels that.

isadore;1579036 wrote:When we act that Sam’s announcement is not worthy of announcement, we should remember
it was only ten year since homosexual acts were crimes in several of our states. It took a Supreme Court decision to end them.
Hopefully we are reaching the day when to paraphrase MLK
where they will not be judged by their sexual orientation, but by the content of the character
Then we will be able to say a gay person is a complete a-hole without any allusions to his sexual orientation.

But how can we not judge things when we are constantly reminded of the differences? I think the same of racism.

WebFire;1579048 wrote:But how can we not judge things when we are constantly reminded of the differences? I think the same of racism.

people still judge them based on their orientation
and they see homosexuality as a flaw in their character.

WebFire;1579048 wrote:But how can we not judge things when we are constantly reminded of the differences? I think the same of racism.

Who is telling you to judge? You are making that decision 100% on your own. No one, including the gay community, is making you judge. You are the only one in control of that.

I don't judge gays and I see the "differences" every day.

wildcats20;1579087 wrote:Who is telling you to judge? You are making that decision 100% on your own. No one, including the gay community, is making you judge. You are the only one in control of that.

I don't judge gays and I see the "differences" every day.

So you agree they don't need to announce they are gay? You are just talking around the argument.

WebFire;1579091 wrote:So you agree they don't need to announce they are gay? You are just talking around the argument.

I don't feel they should HAVE to. But who are you or I to say what they feel the need to do is right or wrong?

If it helps them get through whatever it is that is holding them back, then hell yes they should announce it.

wildcats20;1579093 wrote:But who are you or I to say what they feel the need to do is right or wrong?

IDK, I think they are called opinions.

Fake SportsCenter ‏@FakeSportsCentr Feb 10
Inspired by Michael Sam, Candace Parker expected to come out as first openly straight WNBA player

I laughed.

You shouldn't have. It's not funny.

Rotinaj;1579723 wrote:You shouldn't have. It's not funny.

This.

WebFire;1579712 wrote:Fake SportsCenter ‏@FakeSportsCentr Feb 10
Inspired by Michael Sam, Candace Parker expected to come out as first openly straight WNBA player

I laughed.

That was pretty funny. Thanks for sharing.

Seems like his dad is not all on the same page as everyone else apparently has to be on...

Rotinaj;1579723 wrote:You shouldn't have. It's not funny.

It was.