The gay sports gap: NFL’s Esera Tuaolo, writer Steve Buckley on ESPN after lesbian coach controversy [video]
Newly out sportswriter Steve Buckley and retired football player Esera Tuaolo spoke about the continued suppression of gay male and lesbian visibility in sports today. Tuaolo says that there is a gap but it’s closing with baby steps. Buckley, who came out just three weeks ago, says that he’s received about 2,000 messages of support and only about four that were not. Buckley told Tuaolo that his public coming out made it easier for him to do the same. (ESPN)
The two were invited to speak on ESPN’s ”Outside the Lines” in part because of the controversy surrounding Belmont University’s soccer coach, Lisa Howe. It was reported last month that Howe had been fired from the private Christian school after administrators found out she and her lesbian partner were going to have a baby girl. This week, Belmont University announced that it has included “sexual orientation” to it’s nondiscrimination policy. USA Today quotes a statement from Howe:
”This is a great victory for the values of inclusion, human dignity and respect…. I am grateful to the Belmont board for recognizing that being gay and being Christian are not mutually exclusive. This is a landmark day.”
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