I haven't commented on Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax's
tempest over a blind item in the New York Post hinting that someone
very much like the former Dodgers great is gay. But I think Billy
Bean, who came out several years back after retiring from
professional baseball, pretty much gets it right, as quoted in
the
Washington Blade's story. Koufax's over-reaction -- threatening
to cut all ties to the Dodgers since the team is owned by the same
parent company as the Post -- demonstrates that Major League
Baseball still has little tolerance when it comes to gay players.
Said Bean of the twice-married Koufax:
If he had been able to portray tolerance, that would have made a huge difference. ... I wish [players about whom the media speculates] wouldn't feel such an emphatic need to deny those rumors so vehemently.
Adds Jim Buxinski of outsports.com:
What's so bad about having been alleged to be gay? ... One would hope that he'd be comfortable enough to laugh it off. "Me, gay? Yeah, right, just ask my ex-wives and current girlfriend."
Koufax exited baseball in 1966, so he's of a generation in which being called gay was considered an atrocious slur. Some would argue things haven't changed much in big-time competitive men's sports, but players who've grown up in a far more tolerant world are now coming into their own. Last May, when (yes, again) the NY Post speculated about Mets catcher Mike Piazza and he held a press conference to say, "I'm not gay, I'm heterosexual," his reaction, as compared with Koufax's, was far more subdued. Slowly, things do progress, and will continue to do so.
Related: The NY Daily News "confirms" Koufax is heterosexual. The San Francisco Chronicle urges the gay-obsessed NY Post to "come out."
For Shame.
Couldn't you guess. There are some gay anti-assimilationists who
seem to lament that the era of gays as outcasts is over. According
to the press release for a "Gay Shame" conference to be held at the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor at the end of March:
The purpose of the conference is to inquire into various aspects of lesbian and gay male sexuality, history, and culture that "gay pride" has had the effect of suppressing. The conference intends to confront the shame that lesbians, gay men, and "queers" of all sorts still experience in society; to explore the transformative impulses that spring from such experiences of shame; and to ask what affirmative uses can be made of these residual experiences of shame now that not all gay people are condemned to live in shame.
The theme of the conference responds to recent celebrations of "Gay Shame" in cities across the US, Canada, and Europe, celebrations that often criticize contemporary gay politics and challenge current definitions and practices of "gay pride."
No, I'm not making this up.
Who's Your Momma?
The conservative Washington Times ran
a article on the cancellation of liberal Phil Donahue's show on
MSNBC, with this information:
Indeed, Mr. Donahue featured Rosie O'Donnell as his very last guest, dwelling upon her feelings as a "mother" and a pacifist.
No matter what you think of O'Donnell, she's not only an out
lesbian but legally the mother of three children by adoption (her
partner, Kelli Carpenter, also gave birth to a child who will bear
O'Donnell's surname). The paper's use of what could be termed
scare-quotes around "mother" is meant to disparage gay parents, but
winds up insulting all adoptive mothers and fathers as well. I hope
they protest.
--Stephen H. Miller