Dantrums

Former NBA player Don Amaechi has just come out of the closet, and I'm starting to get a little annoyed. This is becoming a new media routine: Retired athlete comes out of the closet, writes a book about what it's like to be in the closet (Surprise! It's not fun!), and is lauded by sportswriters as brave while ex-teammates scratch their heads and say things like, "I had no idea!" Well, that's because your old friend dedicated a large portion of his life to not letting you have any idea. At any rate, it's time to stop calling athletes who come out after they retire brave. Because they are not. The first ex-athlete came out in 1977. That's thirty years with basically no progress. It was less than five years ago that Mike Piazza held a special news conference to announce that he wasn't gay. Meanwhile, in the real world, gay people enjoy greater accpetance with each passing month. The great world of sports remains one of the last barriers, the Berlin Wall holding apart the nonexistent gap between athletic masculinity and homosexuality. Homo haters love to point out how annoyingly effeminate gay men are, how they aren't "real men." The athlete who tries to quash this poisonous theory once and for all during his career would truly be brave. It would be brave to risk a career in the NBA, the wrath of your teammates, the catcalls of the fans; it's not brave when you decide to hold it in, especially when you know there is praise and a cushy book deal waiting for you. Mr. Amaechi is not a bad person for waiting. But let's please hold the applause for someone who actually risks something.