In today's society being gay is scrutinized greatly and especially in sport. Men in general are very homophobic so this is why it's a major issue in sport. Male athletes do not want gay males on their team or in the locker room with them because of the fear of getting hit on. News flash: not all gay men want you. Lets get serious, would we really as a society disown LeBron James if he was gay. I think not. Being a gay female athlete is a lot easier because society accepts their lesbianism more. I think when a female athlete looks manly and non-feminine then the assumption is that she is gay. When I made that statement in my SM425 class many people didn't understand or didn't like what I said but hey its reality. Gay is now looked at similar to being black was looked at 70 years ago. People don't like people who are not the same as them. So they discriminate against them.
I think one reason that female athletes are not as heavily scrutinized about being lesbians is because women's sport in general gets far less coverage. As one person pointed out, maybe that is one benefit to not having as much coverage. Yet, it does seem that gay male athletes pose a much greater threat to heterosexual male athletes. I think there are a number of myths connected to homophobia in men's sports--most of all that heterosexual males need to fear gay male athletes in the locker room. Why would athletes who are gay even be attracted to other male athletes who are straight?
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