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Are there so few homosexual athletes, or so few OPENLY homosexual athletes? Charles Barkley recently said he played with multiple gay athletes during his career. But there has only been one openly gay NBA player in history and that was John Amaechi. And Barkely never played with Amaechi. So in all likelihood some of Barkely's teammates came out to the team but not to the public, and thus we wouldn't know about it. Plus there may have been (almost certainly were) others who we don't know about nor did their teammates. As for why a lower percentage of homosexual athletes are openly so than the general public, most likely it is because sports is a profession associated with being "manly" which is a trait we commonly assume homosexuals do not possess. Which means an openly gay athlete would be seen as "unmanly" (whether this is true or not is irrelevant) if he came out publicly, and it could potentially end his playing career. In fact, if I recall correctly, the first athlete who was openly gay during his playing career didn't happen until a few years ago when a Welsh rugby player came out. (And let me tell you, rugby players are among the most manly of all athletes). And of course, there was the transgender woman (who identified as a man but was biologically a woman and thus played with them) on the George Washington U basketball team this past year but (s)he left after the season. And there's a lot of negative sterotyping in women's basketball where people assume that successful female athletes ARE homosexual, rather than in men's sports where we assume the opposite.  [[User:Gregkochuconn|Gregkochuconn]] 16:29, 5 June 2011 (EDT)

Are there so few homosexual athletes, or so few OPENLY homosexual athletes? Charles Barkley recently said he played with multiple gay athletes during his career. But there has only been one openly gay NBA player in history and that was John Amaechi. And Barkely never played with Amaechi. So in all likelihood some of Barkely's teammates came out to the team but not to the public, and thus we wouldn't know about it. Plus there may have been (almost certainly were) others who we don't know about nor did their teammates. As for why a lower percentage of homosexual athletes are openly so than the general public, most likely it is because sports is a profession associated with being "manly" which is a trait we commonly assume homosexuals do not possess. Which means an openly gay athlete would be seen as "unmanly" (whether this is true or not is irrelevant) if he came out publicly, and it could potentially end his playing career. In fact, if I recall correctly, the first athlete who was openly gay during his playing career didn't happen until a few years ago when a Welsh rugby player came out. (And let me tell you, rugby players are among the most manly of all athletes). And of course, there was the transgender woman (who identified as a man but was biologically a woman and thus played with them) on the George Washington U basketball team this past year but (s)he left after the season. And there's a lot of negative sterotyping in women's basketball where people assume that successful female athletes ARE homosexual, rather than in men's sports where we assume the opposite.  [[User:Gregkochuconn|Gregkochuconn]] 16:29, 5 June 2011 (EDT)

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