For those who are unfamiliar with his story, Michael Sam is a football player from the University of Missouri. He apparently came out to his coaches and teammates back at the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year, but just came out to the general public this past week. As a graduating student this year, he is hoping to be selected in the NFL Draft to play football professionally. If selected, he would be the first openly gay NFL player in history. When I first heard the story on tv, I thought it was a great thing. Many sports fans here in the U.S., myself included, assumed that football would probably be the last of the major sports to have an openly gay athlete. Football just has a very traditionally masculine image, and seems like the type of arena (no pun intended) where homophobia would be pretty rampant (maybe that’s an unfair assumption on my part, but given the reaction of some people in the NFL to Michael Sam’s coming out, it doesn’t seem completely far-fetched). So I thought, if there can be an openly gay player in the NFL, that would be a major step forward for acceptance among society in general.
Over the next few days, however, it quickly became apparent to me that this story was not having the effect I had hoped. While Michael Sam’s teammates and coaches were very open in stating their acceptance of his sexual orientation, the NFL had a more mixed reaction (and of course, all the negative statements came from “anonymous” sources – shaming is alive and well!). But the most troubling thing to me wasn’t the negative reaction. It was the simple fact that the story became such a big deal. Analysts were discussing whether or not Sam’s sexuality would affect his position in the draft. They were talking about whether he’d be accepted in an NFL locker room. They wondered whether the NFL was ready for an openly gay athlete. In my view, this is a failure, because the whole point of equality is that his sexual orientation SHOULDN’T MATTER. It doesn’t affect his skill as a football player, or his ability to play on a team, therefore it shouldn’t have any bearing on his draft status. I do understand that in order to get to the point someday where sexual orientation isn’t seen as a big deal, it has to be made a big deal along the way. However, this just seemed so over the top to me, I couldn’t watch the coverage anymore after a while. Sexual orientation should make no difference in an NFL locker room. Just like heterosexuals aren’t sexually attracted to every single member of the opposite sex, homosexuals aren’t sexually attracted to every single member of the same sex. I don’t know what his potential future teammates worry would go on in the locker room, but I’m pretty sure whatever they’re thinking is extremely misguided (not to mention homophobic).
Now, I want to contrast that with Ellen Page’s story. She came out during a speech just a couple of days ago, and youtube videos of her speech immediately started popping up all over my facebook newsfeed. The response among my friends was very positive (not surprisingly, given the company I keep). However, I didn’t see any prolonged media coverage of the story. Most major media outlets reported that she came out, but that was pretty much the end of it. Most people didn’t seem to bat an eyelash or be concerned about her future in acting, or anything of the sort. So what is the big difference between these two individuals that made the reaction to their coming out so different? The first difference between Michael Sam and Ellen Page is the line of work they are in. Michael Sam is a trailblazer, mostly because of circumstance. The fact that he would be the first openly gay player in the NFL automatically makes his coming out a big story. Ellen Page, on the other hand, is far from the first openly gay actor in Hollywood. She’s joining a pretty long list. So I guess I can understand it being less of a big deal in that regard (which, by the way, is encouraging as far as my earlier statement about the fact that it’s such a big deal right now being problematic). But the bigger, more problematic difference between the two that jumps out at me is gender. I do feel like there is a much bigger stigma around homosexuality among males in our society than females. Maybe it’s because our culture has this ridiculous idea about masculinity and the “macho” man somehow being the ideal (most straight women I know would disagree, by the way). Whatever the reason, this difference is a problem that needs to be addressed if the fight for equality is to continue making progress. It will be interesting to watch as more celebrities in all disciplines come out, and see how the reaction changes over time. Hopefully, these two most recent instances are more steps in the right direction: towards true equality.
Follow @FRW
