Yup! Like the co founder of Outsports wonders why they don’t want to come out to the media when he describes them like this:
“All professional sports leagues are quote-unquote ready for an out player. But the gay athletes are just afraid. They’re cowards,”
Cyd
Ziegler told the Blade.
“The gay athletes in the major men’s professional sports today are cowards. And even worse than the athletes that are active in sports are the dozens or hundreds of gay athletes who are retired who won’t come out,” he said.
“I mean, they have nothing to lose in the sports world,” Ziegler said.
“At this point the most important thing any of these advocacy groups can do is identify professional LGBT athletes and work with them to come out publicly. I don’t think any of them are doing that,” he said.
That is so horrifying that the only thing they think of is how to get those players to come out, not to make them feel safer or more accepted. They want those clicks and positive press, and don’t truly care about the athletes’ comfort.
And Bettman and co. desperately want those brownie points as more athletes from the big sports leagues come out and the NHL stays silent. The only thing that matters for them is that a player comes out, so they can say they’re inclusive without having to any more to actually combat the NHL’s issues. I’m going to quote a section that article Pain and Consumption: What Society Really Wants From an Out, Gay Athlete:
White, cis, gay men are simply the most marketable athletes within the LGBTQIA spectrum – much in the way that white, cis men are generally considered to be the most valuable demographic in mainstream culture.
A white, gay, cis, male athlete in a major sports league could be consumed in a variety of ways. He could be worn like a badge by his employers and by the league he plays in, like a human version of adding the rainbow flag to a corporate logo.
He most definitely would be used to illustrate the diversity of a specific organization and league, without having that team and league do the hard work of challenging and changing the intertwined systemic issues of racism, religious discrimination, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia that are endemic to the sports entertainment industry.
Even when he doesn’t come out, he is still available for consumption, as we saw recently in the infamous and dangerous piece in which a straight Daily Beast reporter used Grindr to profit and capitalize on the sexuality of gay athletes while simultaneously jeopardizing the safety of those athletes.
And that about sums up how the media and these leagues treat and view closeted and out lgbtqia athletes and why no NHL players have come out yet.
Chinese emperor Ai of Han, fell in love with a minor official, a man named Dong Xian, and bestowed upon him great political power and a magnificent palace. Legend has it that one day while the two men were sleeping in the same bed, the emperor was roused from his sleep by pressing business. Dong Xian had fallen asleep across the emperor’s robe, but rather than awaken his peaceful lover, the Emperor cut his robe free at the sleeve. Thus “the passion of the cut sleeve” became a euphemism for same-sex love in China. — R.G.L.
get you a dude who will fuck up his own clothing for you
NO OKAY THIS IS REALLY COOL SO SHUT UP AND LISTEN KIDS. Ancient China was super chill about homosexuality okay. Like we have gay emperors and feudal lords, lesbian princesses who were girlfriends with their serving maids, gay ass poets who wrote lots of poems about that one courtesan who played the guzheng so well.
In fact homosexuality was so okay that in Shiji, which is basically the Bible of Ancient Chinese history, there is an entire section dedicated to the gay lovers of emperors. What’s the best part? All the laws and criticism about homosexuality in Ancient China were all about shit like prostitution and rape. These laws were outlawing homosexual stuff were all very specific.
For example, there were laws banning male prostitution, but no laws against homosexuality. These laws were passed to stop the spread of prostitution and laws targeting prostitution in general were pretty common in Chinese history. There were also really strict laws about male rape. Rape was punishable by death, regardless of the gender of the victim. Rape a girl, you die. Rape a guy, you die. Have sex with a minor, you die regardless of whether it was consensual. The lightest sentence you could get was slavery where you were bound to the army.
Also scholars wrote essays criticising the boyfriends of emperors, saying that they distracted the emperor from work blah blah blah but THEY ALSO DID THE SAME FOR THE CONCUBINES. That’s right – the issue wasn’t homosexuality but rather the hormones of the emperor. They didn’t care about the gender of the emperor’s favourite lover but rather the fact that the emperor was too horny to get shit done.
“But WAIT, Modern China is a hardass about homosexuality!!!! How do you explain that!”
Yes. That. That’s because of the late Qing years where Western influences entered the country and brought their gross ass homophobic attitudes with them. And the Qing government was so anxious to seem modern and be seen as equals to their Western counterparts. So they adopted Western ways and discarded their previous attitudes about homosexuality. Hence you have Modern China.
So the next time someone tries to tell you that being LGBT is wrong because it goes against traditional Chinese values, tell them to go fuck themselves with 3000 years of Chinese queerness.
“Tell them to go fuck themselves with 3000 years of Chinese queerness.”
Didn’t realize someone had posted this on Tumblr. Cool.
As exhausting as all the blowback I’ve gotten for this (trans women are remarkable able to unify misogynists and radical feminists in their disgust of us), I’ve been really touched by how many people have reached out to say this argument has changed their mind on the subject.
I’m going to keep talking about it until it stops happening, or trans women cease being murdered for triggering male anxieties.
Hey this is super important. Thanks for having the bravery to say it.
reblog guys this is important
This is one of those things where if it wasn’t so prevalent, it wouldn’t be a big deal, it genuinely would be artistic freedom etc, but because it is the norm, every new instance is terrible.
Which is always a really hard paradigm to explain so someone gets it. But I think, if it could be generally communicated effectively somehow, would lead to a massive drop in pushback against anti-discrimination measures from people who are basically good people but who without a sense of how context matters have a tendency to not take problems that don’t apply to them seriously.
Especially problems that require them to accept responsibility and/or feel bad. Important self-defense mechanisms against people in your life walking all over you by making everything your fault engage in social justice situations, and then it’s just like, goodbye. No conversation here.
“I want to give people social and financial empowerment, so eventually people who want to come out won’t be affected. They will have their own social security system. It won’t make a difference if they are disinherited.”
Friendly reminder that Black Lightning features a canonical romance between two (amazing) ladies: Anissa Pierce & Grace Choi. Hope to see y’all checking it out and making noise for it on SM!
It premieres on January 16th at 9/8c on the CW, so let’s try to all tweet/tumble/instagram about it. Give it ratings and a social media presence. Literally all you have to do is keep your TV or livestream on after The Flash ends and switch hashtags over to #BlackLightning.
Now onto more important matters: what will their ship name be? I’m partial to ThunderGrace, as Anissa’s superhero name is Thunder and I think it’s graceful (lol). But Granissa could also be a cute combo of their first names. Thoughts?
Steel Phoenix Studios 