yolowoho:

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.