LGBTQ news and entertainment
Newly out University of Missouri football player Michael Sam is quickly on his way to becoming a sex symbol, if the clip below is any indication.
Check the video footage of Sam dancing shirtless at a local gay club in Columbia, Missouri, last October.
The handsome and buff All-American clearly has the moves on the field and off.
Via TMZ.
Frank Bruni, writing an op-ed for the New York Times today, calls out the truth about gays in the locker room:
A news flash for every straight man out there: You’ve been naked in front of a gay man.
In fact you’ve been naked, over the course of your life, in front of many gay men, at least if you have more than a few years on you. And here you are — uninjured, uncorrupted, intact. The earth still spins. The sun rises and sets.
Maybe it was in gym class, long ago. Maybe at the health club more recently. Or maybe when you played sports at the high school level, the college level, later on. Whether we gay guys are one in 10 or one in 25, it’s a matter of chance: At some point, one of us was within eyeshot when you stripped down.
And you know what? He probably wasn’t checking you out. He certainly wasn’t beaming special gay-conversion gamma rays at you. That’s why you weren’t aware of his presence and didn’t immediately go out and buy a more expensive moisturizer and a disc of Judy Garland’s greatest hits. His purpose mirrored yours. He was changing clothes and showering. It’s a locker room, for heaven’s sake. Not last call at the Rawhide.
Addressing the coming out of University of Missouri All-American football player Michael Sam, Bruni goes on to dissect possible anxiety over having the “distraction” of an openly gay player in the NFL.
Responding to one anonymous NFL assistant coach who claimed “There’s nothing more sensitive than the heartbeat of the locker room,” Bruni wonders aloud – “When did the locker room become such a delicate ecosystem? Is it inhabited by athletes or orchids?”
Go read the full essay by Bruni at NYTimes.com
Athlete Ally board members respond to University of Missouri defensive lineman Michael Sam’s coming out:
“Michael has shown great courage in taking this step and not only do we support him, we are incredibly grateful. His decision to welcome us all into his world as he embarks upon a professional NFL career is an honorable one. This moment will resonate in a unique and important way for countless people, particularly LGBT youth,” said Super Bowl champion and human rights activist Brendon Ayanbadejo, who is a member of the Athlete Ally Board of Directors.
Hudson Taylor, Founder and Executive Director of Athlete Ally said: “With Michael Sam’s brave step, he emboldens LGBT athletes and straight allies everywhere. We are in the midst of incredible transformation in American professional sports. In a very short period of time, athletics has gone from being known as ‘the last closet in America’ to being in a position to lead on this issue. This is the power of sports.”
Sam was named the 2013 SEC Defensive Player of the Year, and expected to be a top draft pick for the NFL this May.
Michael Sam, a 6-foot-2, 260-pound senior for the University of Missouri, had a stellar season for Missouri, which finished 12-2 and won the Cotton Bowl.
A first-team all-American, Sam was named defensive player of the year in the Southeastern Conference.
And now, Michael Sam has come out as gay in an interview with the New York Times.
His teammates voted him Missouri’s most valuable player, and he is expected to be a top draft pick in the upcoming NFL draft in May.
According to the New York Times, he came out to his team in an early pre-season team building exercise.
From the New York Times:
Mr. Sam, 24, is projected to be chosen in the early rounds of the N.F.L. draft in May, ordinarily an invitation to a prosperous professional career. He said he decided to come out publicly now because he sensed that rumors were circulating.
“I just want to make sure I could tell my story the way I want to tell it,” said Mr. Sam, who also spoke with ESPN on Sunday. “I just want to own my truth.”
In regards to possibly being the first openly gay player in the NFL, Sam says “I may be the first, but I won’t be the last.”
The NFL released a statement: “We admire Michael Sam’s honesty and courage. Michael is a football player. Any player with ability and determination can succeed in the NFL. We look forward towelcoming and supporting Michael Sam in 2014.”
More at the New York Times.
