Professional footballer Karl Nessib has announced his homosexuality – as the first active football player in the United States. He does not like to talk about private matters, but he hopes that one day such videos will not be necessary.
Karl Nesib posts on Instagram
For professional athletes like him, it’s still hard to break out, says sports sociologist Birgit Braummuller. This is also due to sports.
SRF News: What do you think of Karl Nessib’s exit?
Birgit Brumöller: I think it’s a very brave and wonderful move. I think this has a great modeling effect, because it comes from a classic male sport, American football, which is very popular in the United States.
What role does the role model play in the matter?
We’ve made it happen. We’ve asked LGBT people across Europe (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/intersex, editor’s note) what they would like to see in the fight against LGBT people. The point at the top of the list was that famous athletes go out in public in order to create something like this.
Why is it so special to come out as a sports professional?
Sports remains a social sphere that is strongly shaped by heterosexual ideas and gender stereotypes. It seems logical to us that the typical athlete is male and straight. This is why publications like Nassib are still worth publishing.
The media, fans, and the public interest that the sport receives also play a major role.
In addition, sports have masculine characteristics. Gays are likely to be denied these. Which, of course, does not correspond to reality, but only reflects our heterogeneous ideas and expectations. In addition, the media, fans and in general the interest in sports plays a major role. All of this can make it difficult for a person to quit certain sports.
What role does sport play in how difficult it is to get out?
It plays a central role. For men, there is still a sport in which homosexuality is strictly taboo. Experience has shown that this primarily includes team sports. Above all, the reasons are given the emotional and physical closeness of the players and social solidarity.
What can clubs do to normalize going abroad?
Our study showed that lack of knowledge and unwillingness to perceive are the biggest problems. Therefore, the central recommendation of the work is to raise awareness of all actors.
Each of us can strive for equal participation in sport.
We asked sports clubs for best practices. It turns out that there must be people who take over the topic and push it forward. LGBT people should also be included in the decision-making process. On a structural level, it will be important to embed an appreciation of diversity, anti-discrimination and all dimensions of sexual orientation in laws.
What does that mean in practice, for example in the field?
It is very important to provide trainers with tools on how to deal with issues of gender and sexual diversity. This should be implemented in training structures. And last but not least, we are all asked to a certain extent: everyone can advocate equal participation. For example, by not accepting homosexual negative language and allying with homosexuals in order to show that sport is tolerant and that everyone is welcome.
Interviewed by Sandra Whitmer.
“Creator. Troublemaker. Reader. Tv nerd. Proud beer advocate. Unable to type with boxing gloves on. Introvert. Certified zombie practitioner. Thinker.”
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has long used soccer to advance his right-wing politics, and now widespread international criticism of a new law seen as targeting the LGBT community has turned this month’s European Championship into a major stage for his challenge to Europe’s liberal values.
Last week, as more than 60,000 soccer fans poured into Budapest’s Puskas Arena, an emblem of Orban’s famous devotion to soccer, the Hungarian Parliament approved a controversial bill that bans sharing with minors any content portraying homosexuality or sex reassignment.
Human rights groups and liberal politicians in Hungary and from around Europe denounced the law as conflating homosexuality with pedophilia and as a draconian effort to push any representation of LGBT people into the shadows. Nearly half of the European Union’s 27 member countries issued a statement calling it a “clear breach of (LGBT people’s) fundamental right to dignity,” and officials are examining whether the legislation contravenes EU law.
In a direct rebuke to the law, Munich’s mayor and city council called for its stadium to be lit up with rainbow colors in a show of support for tolerance and gay rights when Germany plays Hungary on Wednesday at Euro 2020.
The controversy has turned the game into a symbolic showdown between competing visions for the future of Europe, pitting Orban’s promotion of what he calls “illiberal democracy” against Western Europe’s “liberal consensus.”
UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, said that while it understood the city’s intention to send a message to promote inclusion, it denied the request because it considered it a political move. Other stadiums in Germany unaffiliated with the tournament will be allowed such displays and the team captain will wear a rainbow armband.
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European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas slammed the UEFA decision, saying Wednesday he can’t find “any reasonable excuse” for UEFA to reject Munich’s plans.
Orban has been challenging the European consensus ever since he returned to power in 2010: frequently criticizing multiculturalism, curtailing media freedoms, and relentlessly campaigning against the EU itself, portraying Brussels as a modern heir to Soviet Moscow, which dominated Hungary for decades.
His message resonates with many Hungarians who resent interference and perceived condescension from the EU — and he has frequently shown himself adept at maneuvering around its policies, such as when he went out on his own to make Hungary the first EU country to procure Russian and Chinese COVID-19 vaccines not approved by European regulators.
The move — which has led Hungary to have the second-highest rate of vaccination in the EU — offered validation for his strategy of bucking the bloc’s dictates, both increasing his power at home and challenging the EU’s credibility and liberal values.
Fiercely opposed to immigration, he has blasted European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for plans in 2015 to distribute the burden of that year’s wave of refugees from the Middle East and Africa and refused to accept asylum seekers. His crackdowns on the media have led to “a degree of (state) media control unprecedented in an EU member state,” according to Reporters Without Borders.
More recently, after his ruling Fidesz party broke with its center-right political group in the European Parliament, Orban has embarked on a mission to unite Europe’s right-wing forces into a new political formation.
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By all accounts a soccer fanatic and a former player himself, Orban has often used the sport as his preferred venue for pushing his political vision and amplifying his image as a man of the people.
Since the days of Hungary great Ferenc Puskas — widely regarded as one of the best players of all time who led “the Mighty Magyars” to the 1954 World Cup final and an Olympic gold medal at the 1952 Helsinki Games — the country has never again achieved world-class status in soccer. But Orban has attempted to rekindle some of the old magic.
In 2007, he founded the Puskas Soccer Academy in his home village of Felcsut, where he had played semi-professionally in the 1990s. His government also introduced a scheme where companies may donate money to sports clubs in lieu of paying corporate tax, an arrangement that since 2010 has netted clubs as much as $2.7 billion — money that critics say would have been better spent on Hungary’s ailing health care sector.
The government also directly funds the sport, paying for several of the 32 stadiums that have been built or renovated in Hungary since Orban assumed power, making the structures something of a symbol of state largesse.
This major injection of capital into soccer has made games a popular meeting place for politicians and the politically connected. Orban is often photographed at games with some of Hungary’s most successful businessmen, including billionaire Sandor Csanyi, Hungary’s second wealthiest person who is also the president of the Hungarian soccer federation and a UEFA vice president.
The games themselves have also become battlegrounds for displays of Hungary’s values. After a recent game in Budapest between Hungary’s national team and Portugal, UEFA received complaints that Hungarian fans were carrying homophobic banners.
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Video from the game also showed Hungarian fans chanting “Cristiano homosexual!” at Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo during the match. In 2017, FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, fined the Hungarian soccer federation $22,000 after Hungarian fans directed the same chant at Ronaldo at a World Cup qualifier in Budapest.
Earlier in the tournament, during a friendly match in Budapest between Ireland and Hungary, Hungarian fans booed Irish players as they knelt on the field as a sign of solidarity against racism.
Orban seized the opportunity to denounce the gesture that has swept Europe and the United States amid calls for action against racial injustice. He defended the fans, asserting that “politics has no place in sports,” and chided the Irish national team, telling them not to “provoke the host if you come as a guest.”
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Hungarians only kneel before God, their country, and their lovers, he said.
Levente Toth, 45, a Hungarian fan who traveled to Munich to view Wednesday’s game, said that he thought the push to illuminate Germany’s stadium in rainbow colors “has no place in sports,” adding that he thought opposition to the new law was “overblown” and echoing the typical message that the legislation protects children.
“No one wants to harm gays or people who think differently or people of different sexual orientations,” he said.
But Toth said those displaying homophobic banners or engaging in hateful chants at games “should be lifted out of the crowd.”
“It’s a great, great coming out,” said Gon Matsunaka, head of the Pride House Tokyo consortium of nonprofit groups, sponsoring corporation and supportive embassies. “The sports arena in Japan is a very, very closed and conservative. I don’t see a lot of athletes coming out here in Japan. So even if they are in the U.S., there is a big message to Japanese athletes living in Japan, playing in Japan: You can be yourself and you can play as yourself.”
Too early to say if easing of restrictions will go ahead as planned – Min. for Health
Stephen Donnelly, Minister for Health and Fianna Fáil TD for Wicklow, discusses the rise of Covid-19 delta variant cases in Ireland and the ongoing question over the ownership of the national maternity hospital.
Disparities in health between LGTBQ+ individuals and the general population are caused by inadequate or culturally incompetent care.
Providing competent care to LGBTQ+ individuals goes beyond showing sensitivity. It requires understanding and knowledge of unique health challenges.
There are resources available to help LGBTQ+ individuals find a healthcare provider who is equipped to meet their needs.
Dustin Nowaskie, MD, (he/him/his) who identifies as LGBTQ+, expected to receive education in caring for the LGBTQ+ community while he was in medical school. Instead, he says he experienced the opposite.
“When I started medical education, I expected to come out as an empowered and informed queer provider. But medical education then and even now can be biased, stigmatizing, and even offensive towards LGBTQ+ communities,” Nowaskie tells Verywell. “At the same time, I was trying to find my own doctor who I felt understood me and my needs as an LGBTQ+ person, and all I could find were blogs and word-of-mouth referrals.”
Nowaskie’s experiences inspired his career path. He founded and is president of OutCare Health, an organization dedicated to educating providers who want to deliver LGBTQ-competent care and helping LGBTQ+ individuals find a competent provider in meeting their unique health needs.
“There are a lot of groups that say they are LGBTQ-friendly, but that is very different from competency,” Nowaskie says.
Stigmas and Disparities in LGBTQ+ Healthcare
“A Gallup poll [published in February] suggested that 5.6% of the US population identifies as LGBTQ+, and at least 16% of Gen Z identifies as LGBTQ. However, we still live in a binary world that is exclusive of the LGBTQ+ community,” Nowaskie says.
According to Nowaskie, these patients experience higher rates of depression, anxiety, suicide, and substance abuse. At the same time, they receive less treatment for these conditions than the general population.
When they do seek healthcare, LGBTQ+ individuals and their partners may face stigma, discrimination, microaggressions, and even slurs at the hands of the healthcare providers they are trusting to care for them. Spouses and partners of LGBTQ+ patients may not receive the same respect and consideration as cisgender, heterosexual spouses and partners. Depending on state laws, insurance policies, and provider stigma, sometimes they don’t receive care at all.
“Sometimes providers don’t acknowledge same-sex partners,” Nowaskie says. “You would involve heterosexual or cisgender partners. Even when providers do acknowledge partners, they don’t always integrate them into the conversation or use gender-neutral language. They get so overwhelmed they may not breach those questions.”
What to Ask a Potential Healthcare Provider
How can you determine if a provider is competent enough to care for you? Nowaskie suggests asking these questions:
Do their staff and website indicate that they will use gender-affirming pronouns and language? Does their patient intake form include non-binary options for sexual orientation and gender identity? Many providers will assume a patient is cisgender unless stated otherwise, but an LGBTQ-competent provider will ask in an open and non-judgmental way.
How much experience do they have in treating members of the LGBTQ+ community?
Does this provider give care that is specific to LGBTQ+ needs? This may include pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV, routine pelvic exams and pap smears for transgender men, or gender-affirming hormone treatments and surgeries.
Have they taken educational theories or training courses specific to LGBTQ+ care? Do they self-report that they feel competent to meet the tenants of LGBTQ-competent care?
How Providers Can Do Better
Nowaskie says that for healthcare providers to care for LGBTQ+ individuals adequately, they must go beyond sensitivity and inclusion. They must receive training to understand the unique needs of the community.
“The definition of cultural competency is vague because it is a complex entity to describe. It includes an awareness and knowledge of how cultural factors can impact health,” Nowaskie says. “It also involves having the ability to perform informed, educated care regardless of cultural factors. It is a dynamic process of continual learning. All of us can improve. And for the LGBTQ community, things change rapidly, such as terminology, so it is imperative that providers stay on top.”
First and foremost, Nowaskie says that a willingness to listen makes the most significant impact in meeting the needs of LGBTQ+ patients. “When you’re interacting with the community, sit and listen. Try to understand what the community is going through,” he says.
It is also imperative for healthcare providers to understand that the LGBTQ+ community is diverse. Healthcare providers must avoid jumping to conclusions based on stereotypes. Nowaskie says that providers should be open to self-reflection and feedback from their LGBTQ+ patients.
“There are well over 400 identities within the LGBTQ+ community,” he says. “The only way you are going to show cultural competency is to be vulnerable yourself, admit when you’re wrong and accept that feedback. Be neutral, and apologize if you realize that you had previous assumptions.”
Resources for Finding LGTBQ-Competent Providers
If you’re looking for a provider who is already trained to meet your needs, several resources exist to help you get started.
What This Means For You
While sensitivity and acceptance are important in a healthcare provider, they should not be confused with competency. If you are looking for a provider who is particularly well-versed in issues specifically affecting the LGBTQ+ community, know that they exist, and there are resources to help you find them.
A former CBC broadcaster, who once feared for his reputation in the workplace because of his sexuality, is now offering funding to pave the way for upcoming scholars to study LGBT rights.
Career journalist-turned-food critic Karl Wells says he’s funding the new Memorial University scholarship to shed “as much light as possible on every topic” relating to the LGBT community.
“I fear ignorance and misinformation,” Wells told the St. John’s Morning Show.
Nel Jayson Santos, a master of arts student in sociology, is the inaugural recipient of the Karl M. Wells Scholarship in LGBTQ2S+ Studies, an acronym that includes people who identify as homosexual, bisexual, transgender, two-spirited and questioning.
The $2,000 award will be offered annually to students in Memorial University’s faculty of humanities and social sciences whose work reflects a commitment to LGBT matters.
The Karl M. Wells Scholarship in LGBTQ2S+ Studies is the first scholarship of its kind offered by Memorial University, and one of few such scholarships in the country. (Paul Daly/CBC)
‘I can’t be myself in this workplace.’
Wells said he felt the sting of society’s ignorance as a gay man living in a less tolerant time.
“When I was in high school, homosexuality was illegal,” he said. “You could actually go to jail just for being gay. Think about that.”
Before 1969, Canada’s Criminal Code considered “gross indecency” — meaning same-sex relations — an indictable offence worthy of five years’ imprisonment.
Wells remembers when gay bars were about the only safe space for a queer man, and one had to be careful frequenting them.
Because his sexuality was “no secret,” Wells says there was no escaping the sneering remarks of colleagues.
“Even though I was working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which I thought was a very accepting, tolerant liberal organization, there was homophobia,” he said.
“I just realized I can’t be myself in this workplace.”
Karl Wells says homophobic comments were commonplace in the early years of his career. (CBC)
A platform for change
But being hired at the CBC would prove a pivotal turning point for Wells.
“I realized that I was being given a huge platform,” he said. “I thought, ‘The best the best thing I can do is be a wonderful example for the gay community.’ I don’t know whether I succeeded or not.”
As far as comedian Rick Mercer is concerned, he did.
“When I was a kid, one of my professional aspirations was TV,” Mercer said. “I didn’t know how to reconcile that with being gay.”
He recalls a memory in which his friend Andrew Younghusband pointed out Karl Wells’ house, which he shared with his partner. Mercer found Younghusband’s nonchalance discussing a gay couple comforting, and Wells’ visibility, inspiring.
“Being gay wasn’t going to stop Karl Wells from being on TV,” Mercer said to himself, “so it was not going to stop me.”
Comedian Rick Mercer says seeing Wells on TV inspired him to pursue his career dreams. (Jason Vermes/CBC)
Not there yet
On the occasion of their 40th anniversary in 2019, Wells and his husband, Larry Kelly, shared a photo of themselves on social media.
The response was a snapshot of how attitudes have evolved since the not-so-distant days when being in a same-sex relationship constituted a crime the law considered equal in severity to the abduction of a newborn baby.
“It got hundreds and hundreds of likes and wonderful comments,” Wells said of the photo — including a “lovely” one from then premier Dwight Ball.
But among the many well wishes, one in particular caught Wells’ attention: “This is disgusting,” one man wrote.
“I just thought, ‘Oh, my God, this was a photograph of two people who’ve been together for 40-odd years, in love,'” Wells said, “and so it just made me think, ‘Yeah, we’re not there yet.'”
Despite some discouraging news he’s heard lately — the Springdale sidewalk rainbow controversy, for instance, or reports of a gay couple being turned away from a rural N.L. B&B — Wells is holding out hope.
He looks forward to a day in the future when LGBT people are accepted by society at large.
“I think we’re a ways from that,” he said, “but I’m hopeful.”
From the first U.S. Supreme Court ruling to address homosexuality to the first bisexual “Bachelorette,” here are 10 historic LGBTQ milestones from around the world.
Kathy Kozachenko
First out gay person elected to office in the U.S.
Kathy Kozachenko holds a photo of her son and her partner at her home in Pittsburgh in 2015.Chris Goodney / Bloomberg via Getty Images
Three years before Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, out lesbian Kathy Kozachenko was voted onto the Ann Arbor City Council in Michigan on April 2, 1974.
Kozachenko was just 21 and a student at the University of Michigan, a hotbed of anti-war protests and activism supporting racial justice, women’s rights and other causes.
Her sexual orientation didn’t seem to be an issue with voters, and “gay liberation was not a major issue in the campaign,” Kozachenko said in her victory speech, Bloomberg reported.
“This year we talked about rent control. We talked about the city’s budget. We talked about police priorities, and we had a record of action to run on,” she said at the time.
Kozachenko only served one two-year term and eventually moved to Pittsburgh, where she remained involved in gay activism and met her longtime partner, MaryAnn Geiger.
“I am so proud of all the activists that came after me,” Kozachenko told NBC News last year. “The people that pushed and pushed and pushed for gay marriage, the transgender people that have pushed for their rights … I’m grateful for the chance that I was able to play a small part in this.”
Charles “Buddy” Rogers and Richard Arlen during the filming of “Wings” in 1927.Hulton Archive / Getty Images
William A. Wellman’s silent film “Wings,” the first movie to win the Academy Award for best picture, follows Jack (Charles Rogers) and David (Richard Arlen) as they enlist in the Army Air Service during World War I and bond during basic training before being shipped off to France.
While they’re ostensibly romantic rivals for “it girl” Clara Bow, neither “shows as much love for her … as they do for each other,” queer writer Kevin Sessums wrote, according to the LGBT History Project blog.
In the pre-Hays Code film’s climax, Jack accidentally shoots down David, who has commandeered a German biplane. Running to his dying friend’s side, Jack takes David in his arms and begs forgiveness. As the camera zooms in, the two stroke each other’s hair tenderly and Jack declares, “You know there is nothing in the world that means so much to me as your friendship.”
The men share a lingering closed-lip kiss before Jack takes his final breath.
“While the relationship is referred to repeatedly as a friendship, the acting and directing of the film make it obvious that the men’s feelings were romantic,” wrote culture critic and curator Francesca Seravalle. “A swell of romantic string instruments plays in the background as Jack mourns over Dave’s still body. The directing choices made by Wellman humanized both characters and allowed the audience to experience the tragedy without exploiting the perceived exoticness of a relationship between two men.”
Founded in 1952, ONE, Inc. was one of the earliest gay rights organizations in the United States and the first to have its own offices.
An accompanying magazine, One Magazine, started publication in 1953 — selling through subscriptions and at Los Angeles newsstands — and is considered the first mass-produced gay publication in America.
In October 1954, L.A. Postmaster Otto K. Olesen refused to deliver the magazine, declaring it “obscene, lewd, lascivious and filthy.” ONE sued but lost the case and a subsequent appeal — a panel of federal judges declared “Sappho Remembered,” a lesbian love story that ran in one issue, “nothing more than cheap pornography calculated to promote lesbianism.”
Founding editors Dale Jennings and Don Slater appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, which, surprisingly, agreed to hear their case.
On Jan. 13, 1958, without even hearing oral arguments, the justices issued a terse, one-line ruling reversing the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision and affirming that the mere subject of homosexuality was not obscene.
In a Washington Post op-ed in 2014, Brookings Institution fellow Jonathan Rauch called One, Inc. v Olesen “the seminal gay rights case in America — the one that extended First Amendment protection to gay-related speech.”
Marcia Kadish, left, and Tanya McCloskey after being pronounced wife and wife at Cambridge City Hall in Massachusetts on May 17, 2004.Dina Rudick / Boston Globe via Getty Images
On Nov. 18, 2003, Massachusetts became the first state to recognize same-sex marriage when, in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the state Supreme Court ruled it could not “deny the protections, benefits, and obligations conferred by civil marriage to two individuals of the same sex who wish to marry.”
“Recognizing the right of an individual to marry a person of the same sex will not diminish the validity or dignity of opposite-sex marriage,” wrote Chief Justice Margaret Marshall, “any more than recognizing the right of an individual to marry a person of a different race devalues the marriage of a person who marries someone of her own race.”
The first licenses were issued on May 17, 2004, and McCloskey and Kadish, who had already been together nearly 20 years at that point, picked theirs up a few minutes after midnight. With a waiver that allowed them to skip the traditional three-day waiting period, the women exchanged vows later that morning at Cambridge City Hall.
“We felt we were married already,” Kadish told NPR’s “Morning Edition” in 2019. “This was just making it legal.”
At least 78 same-sex couples married in Massachusetts that day — the same day President George W. Bush called for a congressional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
“The sacred institution of marriage should not be redefined by a few activist judges,” Bush said in a statement. “All Americans have a right to be heard in this debate.”
It wasn’t until 2015 that McCloskey and Kadish’s union was recognized federally, when the U.S. Supreme Court effectively made same-sex marriage the law of the land in Obergefell v. Hodges.
By that time, McCloskey had been diagnosed with endometrial cancer. The disease spread quickly, and she died on Jan. 6, 2016.
“We wanted to lead by example, not that we were leaders of anything,” Kadish told NPR. “We just wanted to make sure that the world saw the most positive side of being a gay couple.”
One day before the first Christopher Street Liberation Day march in New York, the Windy City hosted the world’s first Pride march on June 27, 1970 — albeit a much smaller one than the Big Apple’s. The half-mile procession officially went from Washington Square Park to the Water Tower at the bustling intersection of Chicago and Michigan avenues, but many participants continued down to the Civic Center plaza (now Daley Plaza).
Once there, about 150 people listened to speeches at the plaza before doing a “chain dance around the Picasso statue as the marchers shouted, ‘Gay power to gay people,’” the Chicago Tribune reported.
Chicago Gay Liberation, which organized the event, chose the date because the Stonewall uprising had started on the last Saturday in June the year prior. The members also wanted to reach the biggest crowd of shoppers on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.
Today, the Chicago Pride Parade takes place on the last Sunday of June, drawing more than 800,000 people to North Halsted Street, long known as “Boystown.”
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir speaks with the media after winning the elections on April 25, 2009 in Reykjavik. Olivier Morin / AFP via Getty Images
While gay finance minister Per-Kristian Foss was briefly in charge of Norway in 2002 when both the prime minister and foreign minister were traveling abroad, Iceland’s Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is the world’s first openly LGBTQ elected head of state.
A former flight attendant, Jóhanna was first elected to the Althingi (Iceland’s parliament) in 1978 as part of the Social Democratic Party. Throughout her career, she has also served as deputy speaker of the Althingi, vice chair of the SDP and minister of social affairs.
On Feb. 1, 2009, Jóhanna was formally sworn in as Iceland’s first female prime minister and the first out LGBTQ world leader in modern history. She served from 2009 to 2013, steering the country’s economy “back on solid footing” after the massive financial crisis, according to Britannica, with the country’s GDP growing 3 percent in both 2011 and 2012.
She and girlfriend Jónína Leósdóttir entered into a civil union in 2002. In 2010, when Iceland recognized same-sex marriage midway through Jóhanna’s tenure, the pair became one the first same-sex married couples in the country.
German immigrant Henry Gerber launched the Society for Human Rights out of his Chicago home in 1924 and received an official charter from the state of Illinois, making it the first incorporated group devoted to gay rights in the U.S.
Stationed in his former homeland during World War I, Gerber witnessed Berlin’s thriving gay subculture and was influenced by the work of pioneering sex researcher Magnus Hirschfeld.
Returning to the States, he took a job with the post office and founded the society out of his apartment at 1710 N. Crilly Court in Chicago’s Old Town Triangle neighborhood.
But the organization lasted less than a year, disbanding in 1925 after police raids on both a member’s home and Gerber’s apartment. Gerber was fired from the post office and eventually moved to New York, where he continued advocating for gay rights until his death in 1972.
In 2015, Gerber’s Chicago home was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service.
Dr. Renée Richards reaches for a backhanded return during a match with Australia’s Lesley Hunt in the $100,000 Women’s Professional Tennis Tournament at Walter Brown Arena.Bettmann / Bettmann Archive
Renée Richards was set to play in the 1976 U.S. Open until officials learned she was assigned male at birth and attempted to ban her from competing.
Richards had been a tennis prodigy from a young age, playing in the men’s Open several times and even making the semifinals in 1972. A successful ophthalmologist, she medically transitioned in 1975 and began living as Renée Richards (the name Renée meaning “reborn”).
She kept a fairly low profile — entering a 1976 competition as Renée Clark — but her transition was “outed” in a local news report by San Diego reporter Dick Carlson, father of Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson. Fans rooted against her, with shirts reading “Go away, Renee,” and late-night talk show hosts made crude jokes.
When Richards entered the Tennis Week Open in 1976, 25 of the 32 women in the competition withdrew.
To keep Richards off the court, the United States Tennis Association started demanding a chromosome test for all female players. She challenged that policy in a case that went before the New York Supreme Court.
Mirroring arguments made by groups seeking to ban transgender athletes today, the USTA argued it was trying to maintain “fairness” in the face of “as many as 10,000 transsexuals in the United States and many more female impersonators or imposters” who would be eager to snatch “millions of dollars of prize money.”
Billie Jean King, who had played doubles with Richards, testified that she “does not enjoy physical superiority or strength so as to have an advantage over women competitors in the sport of tennis.”
In a landmark victory, the court ruled in Richards’ favor.
“When an individual such as plaintiff, a successful physician, a husband and father, finds it necessary for [her] own mental sanity to undergo a sex reassignment, the unfounded fears and misconceptions of defendants must give way to the overwhelming medical evidence that this person is now female,” Judge Alfred Ascione wrote in the majority opinion.
Two weeks later, Richards played in the 1977 U.S. Open, where she lost to Wimbledon champ Virginia Wade in the first round. She did reach the doubles finals with Betty Ann Stuart, but the pair lost to Betty Stöve and a fiery new upstart named Martina Navratilova.
Four years later, Renée Richards retired from professional tennis at age 47. She continued her thriving ophthalmology practice and even coached Navratilova to two wins at Wimbledon.
Born in 1885 to a Jewish family in Arolsen, Germany, Baer was assigned female at birth, though the midwife told his father the baby’s body had “such strange” characteristics it was impossible to determine the gender.
In his 1907 autobiography, “Memoirs of a Man’s Maiden Years,” published under the pseudonym N.O. Body, Baer wrote about being ostracized at school and feeling ill at ease in his assigned sex.
While he is often referred to as transgender, today Baer would more accurately be considered intersex.
“I was born as a boy and raised as a girl,” he wrote. “One may raise a healthy boy in as womanish manner as one wishes and a female creature in as mannish; never will this cause their senses to remain forever reversed.”
In 1904, Baer moved to Hamburg to work as a social worker with the Jewish organization B’nai Brith. It was there that he began living as a man.
“I introduced myself as a man, never as a woman,” Baer wrote. “What am I really? Am I a man? Oh God, no. It would be an indescribable delight if I were. But miracles don’t happen anymore these days.”
Two years later, Baer was in a trolley accident in Berlin. He was rushed to the hospital, where doctors realized his ID listed him as female despite his presenting as male. They connected him with Magnus Hirschfeld, who diagnosed him as “a man who was mistakenly identified as a woman.”
With a permit from the Prussian Interior Ministry, Baer underwent a multistage gender confirmation procedure, Haaretz reported, though the exact details of the surgery are unknown. He was released from the hospital in December 1906 with a medical certificate identifying him as male. The following year, court clerks in Arolsen issued him a new birth certificate.
Others had transitioned socially before, but Baer “was unusual in that he used medical technology and surgical means to change his gender,” transgender historian Iris Rachamimov told Haaretz.
Brooke Blurton on June 19, 2019 in Perth, Australia.Faith Moran / GC Images
Since “The Bachelor” debuted on ABC in 2002, the marital-minded franchise has spawned multiple spinoff series and over 30 international editions. But it wasn’t until the upcoming season seven of “The Bachelorette Australia” that producers tapped an out member of the LGBTQ community to headline the show: 26-year-old Brooke Blurton, who is bisexual.
For the first time in the franchise’s history, the star will choose among both men and women during the rose ceremony.
“I am not too sure if Australia is ready for it,” Blurton, who previously appeared on the Down Under versions of “The Bachelor” and “Bachelor in Paradise,” told The Daily Telegraph. “I certainly am. If it makes people feel uncomfortable in any way, I really challenge them to think about why it does.”
Blurton, a Noongar Yamatji woman from Western Australia, will also be the first Indigenous woman on the show.
“We are a nation of people from so many different backgrounds, so many different cultures and so many different experiences, yet we all have one thing in common — we all want to be loved in a way that is meaningful to us,” “Bachelorette” host Osher Günsberg said in a statement. “I can’t wait to get started on helping our Bachelorette Brooke find that kind of love.”
In the U.S., former “Bachelor” star Colton Underwood came out as gay in April, two years after appearing on the series’ 23rd season.
Top GAA referee David Gough has questioned why some of Ireland’s top sports stars are ‘afraid’ to come out as gay.
The openly gay referee is one of few figures in Irish sport to come out in recent years, and said that coming out has only helped improve his life as he received nothing but support.
But he noted that there are plenty of athletes in elite sport that have not come out, and he questioned what the barriers stopping them from doing so are.
Appearing on Virgin Media Tonight, Gough said he felt that the barriers in front of those athletes are just perceived hurdles.
“There are a huge amount of people, not only in the GAA, but in elite sport in Ireland that are afraid to come out (as gay),” Gough said.
“You only have to look at 64 inter-county teams, League of Ireland, we’ve an awful lot of international players playing in the Premiership, we’ve four provincial Rugby teams, Hockey, Boxing, we could name a number of sports here.
“And there are no elite gay male athletes coming out in those sports, the questions needs to be asked why? Why are they struggling?
“What are the issues? What are the barriers and hurdles that are stopping them coming out?”
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He added: “I have received nothing but huge support from my own colleagues on the refereeing panel, I found the media nothing more than positive, certainly here in this country.
“My life has been positively enhanced since I came out, so I can’t see any major barriers or hurdles – just perceived barriers – and that’s what I feel the issue might be”.
Nobody can stop the hands of time from moving forward. However, there are things you can do to encourage premature aging, making you look and feel older than your actual age. Luckily, many of these bad health habits can be corrected, and effectively, undo the damage in no time at all. Read on for six habits that make you look older and what you can do to reverse them—and to ensure your health and the health of others, don’t miss these Sure Signs You Have “Long” COVID and May Not Even Know It. 1
AFTER a long season of Callan’s Kicks on the radio, I took a full week off politics.
It takes some doing in this age and requires ignoring most of the news and turning off social media.
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Sinn Fein has significantly grown its support since the election
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Micheal Martin has recovered from a terrible start as TaoiseachCredit: Getty
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Simon Coveney is showing keen interest in his jobCredit: AFP
Although BBC breaking news alerts did keep the phone hopping with such hot topics as Iran’s new President and Israeli parliamentary maths.
The Euros proved a useful distraction and the volume of content from the tournament alone from Covid outbreaks to “political” rainbows is like a methadone dose for any news junkie. Still, it’s a fresh perspective gained to step away, even for a short week.
Opinion polls have revealed some interesting trends. Sinn Fein has significantly grown its support since the election and Fine Gael’s pandemic bounce is fading fast.
Fianna Fail, now equal to the vote it received last year, is far from finished and Micheal Martin has recovered from a terrible start as Taoiseach.
At 49 per cent, his approval rating is surprisingly high given the abuse he has sustained from his own party and a broadly negative commentary on his tenure to date. It seems like FF and Fine Gael will be back on level pegging by the time Martin hands over the Taoiseach’s office to Varadkar at the end of 2022.
Can we trust the latest surveys? These are the only findings since the exit poll on election day 2020 that we can have any faith in, as they were conducted on doorsteps for the first time since the pandemic hit.
Another interesting stat is that the Green party is holding fast to its level of support despite an avalanche of internal strife and media damnation.
The protests of farmers are perhaps exaggerating the strength of the Green party’s input in environmental policy, despite valid complaints that new climate action laws are merely aspirational.
Eamon Ryan will be pleased with the poll and can look forward to a quiet summer after seeing off Hazel Chu’s attempt to win the by-election nomination in his own backyard.
The hot take from polls is that the Shinners are now fully mainstream. It coincides with a period that sees them as the accidental grown ups in Northern Ireland’s political maelstrom.
The party is fairly certain to be the biggest party in elections up North next year since it’s hard to see the DUP recover credibility among ordinary decent unionists defecting to the Alliance party.
That would help their case as a future Government down south no end. The significant thing about the huge level of support for SF in the south is that the mood in the country is generally positive and hopeful.
This would normally benefit the governing parties, and may be responsible for Fianna Fail’s recovery, but despite a spending boom and a glowing summer mood, it is Sinn Fein who is doing the best. The answer is in housing.
With only three and a half years to a General Election at most, housing is certain to remain the burning issue and there is no sign of the coalition changing tack in the meantime.
Leo Varadkar’s glib attitude on the housing crisis has shown that ten years in Cabinet has not improved his astonishing lack of empathy on the matter. Housing remains his achilles heel.
On Covid restrictions too, Varadkar has long given up on being a straight-talker in media, instead preferring to sow acres of confusion. Why is he saying unvaccinated people under 30 can travel abroad, against the advice of scientists and public health people not just in Ireland but all over Europe?
Why is he so anxious to get people back into offices by August, despite talking up working from home laws only a few weeks ago? The FG boss sounds more like someone lobbying for the big beasts of his business portfolio than a leader with any interest in wooing voters.
His speech on a united Ireland again shows he is often motivated by stirring up a reaction from social media. Having listened to Varadkar in the media this week after stepping away for a few days, the Tanaiste strikes me as someone who’s thoroughly bored with politics and his current gig.
His main rival for the party leadership, Simon Coveney, is by contrast showing keen interest in his job. The Minister for Foreign Affairs is very busy on UN Security Council and European Union business and racking up plenty of air miles.
This is a man with clear ambitions who seems very eager to build a big political future for himself — in anywhere but Ireland.
Overall, despite fears of the Delta variant, the country is booming.
You can see this through obvious signs of inflation – petrol prices, barbers’ rates higher, there are bars in Dublin serving seven euro pints outdoors and the price of everything from broadband to building is shooting up.
Normally the Government of the day would benefit from this spend-happy mood, but instead it’s the party promising people houses.
WAITING AT 40 IS AN EASY JAB
IT’s now three weeks since I registered for the Covid vaccine and I’m feeling like a forgotten kid who’s last to be picked for lunch break footie. Where’s me bleedin appointment?
Feeling convinced the HSE has forgotten me, it was somewhat reassuring to text around to my fellow 40-year-olds and hear they’re also waiting unhappily for the jab.
The gap between registering and vaccinating for the other age groups before us was gleefully short, so forgive us for grumbling.
It doesn’t help that having registered and given up various details to the “online portal”, you can’t log in again to see where things stand as there’s no account as such to see the progress.
What’s also enraging is that the Government is now offering jabs to the over 50s who didn’t bother to register the first time around.
They can look up local pharmacies in their county, book a slot and walk in for a Johnson and Johnson jab all week.
While the rest of us wait and refresh our phones, searching for that golden HSE appointment text. At a minimum it will now be at least a month between registering and getting the jab.
Which kicks us into the back end of July for the second dose, meaning it will be mid-August before we reach full immunity. If there’s one light at the end of the tunnel, it’s that us 40ers are told there’s a shedload of Pfizer waiting for us when the time comes.
More importantly, we’re able to sigh sagely at those in their 30s who were thrilled to see their ages called this week for registering.
How wise we are now to open a Werther’s Original and tell those 30-something scamps their joy is misplaced. The wait goes on.
MICHEAL’S DIARY
HALLO diary, I notice Leo is getting all excited cos Love Island is coming back again.
He thinks this will do his self-satisfaction ratings the world of good once the world focuses on eejits who gym until their brains rot rather than anything of substance. The Love Island going on in Leo’s head for the last four years has meant that he has little interest in looking into anything that doesn’t cast his reflection.
I worry about the state of the world when Love Island is the focus to be honest now. All these airheads walking around like the world owes them a favour, desperate to be famous without working too hard. They’re worse than the Blueshirts. Arrah, sure Fine Gael’s front bench is like Love Island with their shirts on and minus all the steroids. Well, most of them anyway. And like the show, they throw in the desperate ones who haven’t a hope and are only there to provide a few laughs, like yer wan Emer Higgins. Her gig is to make FG housing policy sound reasonable.
Poor girleen. It would be like us in FF appointing someone whose sole job is to defend Bertie’s yellow suit. Poor wee Higgins records herself on her phone yapping about the Shinners with a wide-eyed look on her face as though she’s just eaten the latest homeless figures and they’re not going down the right way. I feel sorry for her to be honest. She has the worst job in Irish politics since the poor intern who used to have to carry Michael Noonan’s lunch to him.
Three times a day. Then help wind him afterwards. God above, it’s at times like these the inflated salary, expenses and pensions we’re on are only half worth it. Mise le meas, Micheál.
OH UEFA, EUR’ NOT A PRIDE AND JOY
UEFA turned down a request from the Mayor of Munich to light up its Bayern stadium in the rainbow colours for tonight’s Germany match against Hungary. The pro-LGBT move during Pride Month was deemed “political” after a series of recent homophobic laws passed by Hungary’s government.
The move to block the stadium was an ugly reminder that such a great tournament is run by a bunch of slugs.
Uefa also threatened to investigate German keeper Manuel Neuer for wearing a rainbow armband at the Portugal game before dropping the probe after a slew of derision.
This time they’ve bowed to the homophobic bile coming from Hungary’s Government and blocked the gesture in Munich. The German city is an exceptionally gay-friendly destination in the heart of Catholic Bavaria, a broadly conservative State where attitudes have moved in recent years.
Germany only legalised same-sex marriage in 2017 and the country’s captain Neuer is the most prominent LGBT advocate in sport, having first donned the rainbow band in January while captaining Bayern.
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Uefa had a chance here to make a big stand in football which remains behind the real world on LGBT rights and acceptance.
This bodes badly for the next major tournament. Fifa brings the World Cup to Qatar next year, a country where male homosexuality is illegal and carries a three year jail sentence and technically the death penalty for gay Muslims.
It’s also illegal to campaign for LGBT rights there, meaning Neuer could actually be arrested for sporting a rainbow armband in Qatar at World Cup ’22. Good times.
LOS ANGELES – Any fan of Lisa Vanderpump knows loves animals, especially dogs! In fact, the restauranteur, TV star, author and actress has run a Los Angeles-based dog rescue foundation since 2016.
Now, the foundation has a show of its own – the “Vanderpump Rules” star’s newest spinoff series, “Vanderpump Dogs.”
Vanderpump founded the organization with husband Ken Todd after becoming aware of the Yulin Dog Meat Festival in China and witnessing the horrific images of slaughter and abuse faced by the dogs there. Together with their partner Dr. John Sessa, they launched the campaign Stop Yulin Forever, a movement which has gained momentum and inspired activists all over the world to end the Yulin Dog Meat Festival and encourage more humane treatment for dogs worldwide.
The three founders hope to reinvent the image of a dog shelter, from a pound to a palace, doing everything the Vanderpump way: they rescue, rehabilitate, primp, and pamper dogs in need of a loving forever home.
The new show, which airs this week on Peacock, will follow Vanderpump and the staff at the Foundation’s rescue center as they work to find just the right humans to give the dogs the loving home they deserve. Each of the episodes will focus on the characters who come to the foundation to adopt their forever friend, all with a dose of comedy and a dash of drama – and one of them will Los Angeles-based TV host and style expert Dan Babic, who has joined the show as a leading cast member.
Babic, an Australian native who identifies as LGBTQ, is known to fans as the lead host of FabTV on Roku, where he covers everything you need to know about celebrities and Hollywood. He is a fixture on red carpets at the Oscars, Golden Globes, and many other events, where his interviews have garnered over 36 million views. He also hosts “Design Genius” on Fashion Television, a “Project Runway” style show that currently airs in 160 countries and boasts nearly 350 million viewers. In addition, he travels the world on The CW’s “Unfiltered Experience,” hosting beauty exhibitions and panels with celebrities and influencers around the globe. In January, he appeared on E! Network’s “Dating No Filter.”
The larger than life host and fashion expert – who is often referred to as “gay Lisa Vanderpump” – joins the show with its second episode, which focuses on his jet-setting lifestyle and his wish to find a dog that can accompany him on the red carpet, front row at fashion week, and all his other worldwide adventures. With the help of Lisa’s rescue foundation, he finds the perfect companion in the adorable Gizmo.
Peacock drops all six episodes of “Vanderpump Dogs” on June 9. Watch the trailer below.
You know this time of year: rainbow flags hang all over the place, crowds of happy people celebrate their basic right to be who they are. Well, that is if you live in parts of the world that tolerate LGBTQ people. You know that Russia is not that kind of place, and its small southern republic of Chechnya is even worse.
Chechnya made headlines in 2017 and 2019, when independent media uncovered a state-run campaign of mass arrests of gay people. Security forces reportedly kidnapped over 120 suspected homosexuals and tortured them in order to extract a confession of something that’s not considered a crime even in Chechnya. At least five of them are presumed dead.
The purge mostly targeted men, but women are in danger just as much. On 4 June, 22-year-old Khalimat Taramova fled Chechnya with the help of LGBTQ activists to seek refuge in the neighboring Dagestan. According to her friends, Taramova had been constantly beaten up by her husband and relatives — apparently, for being lesbian. In just six days, the safehouse in Makhachkala, where Taramova and other women suffering domestic abuse took shelter, was stormed by a group of men. Among them were Chechen police and the young woman’s father, a former official and the owner of one of the biggest malls in Chechnya.
In the following days, activists have managed to create enough noise to make the authorities reluctantly show Taramova to the world. A local TV station in Chechnya aired a 35-minute feature, explaining that Khalimat was perfectly fine and simply fell victim to evil forces attempting to crush traditional values of the Chechen people. The young woman herself got two minutes of screen time, standing near her father’s chair, appearing extremely frightened.
“The girl has learnt the hard lesson, and she promises to not get involved with shady individuals, who, acting as psychologists, fooled her and nearly destroyed her life,” the feature says.
Ramzan Kadyrov — an Islamist fighter-turned-Chechen leader – had famously stated that there are no gay people in Chechnya, and if there were any, their relatives would kill them. Not to imply that the most feared man in Russia isn’t a reliable source, but Google Trends provides a different picture. Over the past year, the Chechen Republic has been the leader among over 80 regions of Russia using the “gay sex” search query. Every week, a few Chechens educate themselves about the forbidden topic, risking their lives for this simple act.
A couple thousand miles to the north, I walk the streets of St. Petersburg, watching girls holding hands, and occasional guys wearing makeup. At first, I found it hard to believe that I’m in the same country as Chechnya. In a split second, the realisation kicks in: it is the same country. The one where “homosexual propaganda” is a criminal offense. The one where the authorities persecute support groups that attempt to explain LGBTQ teens that they are perfectly normal people.
Yet, it’s the same country that adores pop stars who are very visibly queer but too afraid to come out. Like many absurdities of Russian life, it sends my head spinning. The hypocrisy of politicians widely rumored to be homosexual who adopt anti-gay legislation. The indifference to a medieval campaign of mass arrests and murder of people guilty of having consensual sex with members of their own gender. It makes me wonder, who’s gonna be the next big bad Other to face the wrath of the state?
How are you celebrating Pride Month this year? Are you putting a little rainbow circle around your Twitter profile picture? Attending an in-person Pride parade? Watching Laverne Cox’s groundbreaking Netflix documentary “Disclosure” about transgender representation in the media?
Well, if you’re one of the nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, it looks like your idea of a fun Pride event is to rule that the city of Philadelphia is legally required to refer foster children to a local Catholic foster care program which prohibits same-sex couples from fostering children on religious grounds.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, where they held that the city’s refusal to contract with Catholic Social Services for foster care services unless the group agreed to certify same-sex couples as foster parents violates the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.
We’ve known for a while that, at least under the Constitution, it is legal for select invididuals to discriminate against gay people on the basis of religion. Since the Supreme Court issued their ruling on Masterpiece Cakeshop, LTD., v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission in 2018, it’s been clear that private businesses basically have the right to refuse service to anyone.
When the Masterpiece Cakeshop ruling initially came out, I was shocked and upset that the highest court in our land would allow a business to not serve gay people. But since then, I’ve had several stints in the service industry, and I’ve really come to appreciate the fact that we can refuse service to anyone — though instead of discriminating against gay people, we mostly just don’t serve creepy old men who hit on the teenaged workers. Besides, I don’t want to patronize businesses that don’t respect gay people.
But to say that the government of the United States must contract with a group that discriminates against same-sex couples? That’s frightening.
The legal basis this case relies upon is the idea from the First Amendment that the government can’t make any rules that prohibit anyone from practicing their religion. So, obviously, we can’t stop people from praying, gathering or fasting. Makes sense to me, but then we get to the idea that discriminating against gay people is a religious practice.
It’s ridiculous to include discrimination or refusal of service in the umbrella term of “religious practices” for several reasons. All the other religious practices I mentioned don’t bring any harm to other people — it’s just an individual expressing themselves, which is what the First Amendment is all about. But even the Supreme Court has recognized that there are limits to personal freedom when it comes to the safety of others. You can yell whatever you want in front of the Nebraska State Capitol, but you can’t yell “fire” in a crowded theater because that may cause harm to other people.
So if we as a country are able to establish and accept that there are limits to free speech, why does the highest court in our nation refuse to set these limits on other aspects of the First Amendment? I understand that religion is a complicated topic, and there are so many nuances to consider. It makes sense that the government shouldn’t be able to force a Catholic doctor to perform an abortion because the government shouldn’t be able to force private citizens to do things that go against their religious beliefs.
Following this line of logic, the SCOTUS decision makes some sense; the main issue in the case is that the city of Philadelphia refused to contract with the CSS unless they changed their policy to allow same-sex couples to foster children. But where that logic breaks down is the fact that the ruling seems to equate the government’s decision of whether or not to enter a contract with a private business with the government telling a business what their policies should be.
Yes, in this case the city of Philadelphia was refusing to contract with this CSS group unless they allowed same-sex couples the same rights to foster children as opposite-sex couples. But — and this is a big but — the government was not forcing the group to change any of their policies. In fact, the city continued to work with CSS for other foster care services, such as operating group homes.
CSS could have very easily said, “Oh, well, we don’t believe in rights for gay parents, so we’re not doing to do that.” And the city of Philadelphia would have said, “OK, that’s dumb, but whatever, we’ll find another foster care association to contract with that isn’t so bigoted,” which is what the city was doing.
That’s why this decision is so preposterous to me. It’s essentially saying that the government no longer has freedom of choice in private contractors — in the name of religious freedom. So if the government has to contract with private companies that discriminate against gay people in the name of religion, and the government is giving business to these private companies, the government is literally perpetrating discrimination against queer people.
I acknowledge that to some people, same-sex couples are still really hard to wrap their heads around. I don’t understand it at all, but I do know that a lot of those people exist, and I know that they have the legal right to discriminate against gay people. I understand that this is a right enshrined in our Constitution.
But I’m deeply disappointed that this Supreme Court ruling goes out of its way to explicitly enforce the idea that discriminating against the LGBTQ+ community is a “religious exercise.”
To me, this all boils down to a fun game of “which rights matter more?” And to every single justice on the highest court in the United States, it seems like the freedom to hate people because of your religion is more important than the freedom to love who you love.
Back in 2014, Referee Magazine was getting ready to publish a remarkably detailed feature on Dale Scott. The author had tracked down several of Scott’s childhood friends, his colleagues, even his program director from his long-ago gig as an AM radio disc jockey. Readers of the subscription-only, low-circulation publication would learn everything there is to know about the life and career of this longtime Major League umpire.
Everything but his sexual identity.
So when Scott was asked to provide some photos to run with the piece, he felt torn. For here was this comprehensive, meticulous account of his personal history, and yet he had not introduced author or audience to Michael Rausch — the man who, at that point, had been his partner for nearly 20 years and his husband for one.
It didn’t sit right with Scott.
“I decided to send in a picture of him and I on flight to Australia [for the 2014 D-backs and Dodgers season opener],” Scott says now. “I sent that picture with some other ones of other things. I wrote, ‘Dale Scott and longtime companion Michael Rausch.’”
That’s the quiet, subtle way in which Scott became the first openly gay official in any of the United States’ four major male professional sports.
Scott’s decision — and the positive way it was received by the Major League Baseball industry — still resonates here in Pride Month, nearly seven years after the Referee Magazine piece was published. Scott’s experience is an example of how, even in such a traditionally conservative sport, a person can be received and judged on the quality of their work, not their sexual preference. His is a tale that will hopefully one day serve as an archetype if — and more likely when — an active Major League player has the courage to come out.
“If a guy can play,” says Scott, “I don’t think anybody cares. Evaluate me on my work on the field and nothing else. That’s what it’s all about. Straight, gay, bi or whatever. Are you a good person? Are you good in your field? Do you help the organization?”
In a career that spanned from 1986 until 2017, when concussion issues forced him into retirement, Scott proved himself an asset to the industry. He was one of the game’s most respected umps, working three World Series, three All-Star Games, six League Championship Series and 12 Division Series.
But Scott lived a double life — his life in the Majors, and his life at home in Portland, Ore.
“In baseball, I was out on the road and actively deceiving people, because I didn’t want my true self to be known,” he says. “But I certainly wasn’t in the closet at home.”
Scott’s unusual job made it possible to maintain those separate worlds. He didn’t have an office holiday party to attend with a significant other and generally didn’t have to worry about running into co-workers on the street.
Still, his secret, which he kept from all but a select few friends and family members, wore on him over the years.
Scott was just 19 years old when he looked in the mirror one day and, like any good ump, made a correct call.
“Oh, I get it!” he said to himself. “You’re gay!”
It was really that simple. Scott had felt attracted to other boys as early as the seventh grade. It was natural to him, even though he knew and understood it wouldn’t be received as naturally by everybody else. And so he made the conscious decision to, as he put it, “play the game” and keep his sexuality a secret. But he also decided he wouldn’t enter into any fraudulent relationships with women just to appease the expectations of others.
And so, for many years, Scott pretended to be the guy too busy to date. His ascension in the umpiring world gave him a built-in excuse. When his cousin, a hairstylist, would try to set him up with her clients, Scott would always decline.
“It’s so tough to have a relationship,” he’d tell her. “In another month, I’m right back on the road.”
On the flip side, when his fellow umpires would ask him about his relationship status, Scott would say things like, “Oh, I’m seeing somebody back home.”
That was true, just not in the way people assumed. Scott had met Rausch shortly after his first season as an umpire in the big leagues, and they’ve been together ever since. But Scott didn’t feel comfortable revealing his relationship to even his closest friends in the game.
Everything began to change in the late 1990s. By then, Scott had brought his “roommate Mike” along with him on enough trips that other umpires began to catch on (a good eye is a prerequisite for the job, after all). One Spring Training night, Scott was out for a drink with fellow ump Derryl Cousins, who finally broke the silence.
“Hey Scotty, I know you have a little different lifestyle,” Cousins said. “I want you to know I would walk on the field with you any time.”
With that, Scott’s complicated and carefully constructed barrier had been broken. And though Scott did not confirm anything to Cousins that night, he had been given an important window into how his revelation would eventually be received by his closest colleagues.
Changes to the umpires’ union contract in 2010 allowed Scott to add Rausch as his domestic partner for insurance purposes, and so people in the league office were aware of his sexuality several years before he came out publicly. Scott and Rausch married not long after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in 2013.
But it wasn’t until Referee published that photo that Scott was truly ready to let the world in on his secret. The magazine article was released in late September 2014.
“Crickets,” Scott says with a laugh.
As big as the moment may have been to Scott, a small caption in a publication with a circulation of about 45,000 didn’t gain much traction. But one anonymous, wily reader did spot the photo and sent it to the LGBT sports news website Outsports. And when Outsports ran a story of its own — with Scott’s participation and permission — about two months later, it had a much, much larger audience.
“For about a day and a half, it seemed like pretty big news,” Scott says. “But it wasn’t during the season, obviously, so I was curious to see what type of reaction, if any, I would be getting when the season started.”
He got his answer the following March. The Reds and Indians played a Spring Training game in Goodyear, Ariz. — Scott’s first as an openly gay umpire. He was standing near third base when, between innings, outfielder Marlon Byrd came running toward him on his way to the dugout. In what can only be described as a highly unusual player-ump interaction, Byrd wrapped Scott in a bear hug.
“You’re free, brother, you’re free!” Byrd said. “I’m so proud of you!”
Later that game, Joey Votto shook Scott’s hand and congratulated him. Elsewhere that season, Scott was saluted by one other player, one athletic trainer and one third-base coach.
That was it. Scott got supportive e-mails from all over the world when the Outsports article was published, but he never heard another word about his sexuality within baseball circles. And to Scott, that mostly unremarkable reaction was remarkable in and of itself. Because for the first time, he could do his job and live his life without fear or confusion.
“The experience I had coming out,” he says, “was very, very positive.”
Now 61 years old and conducting umpire evaluations for various camps and enjoying his retirement from the rigors of the MLB schedule, Scott will tell his story in greater detail in a forthcoming and as-yet-untitled biography, written with the help of author Rob Neyer, that will be published by the University of Nebraska Press next year.
But Scott is hopeful that a day is coming soon when stories such as his will cease to be exceptional. He observed with great interest when several active players spoke out against the homophobic slur that led to Reds broadcaster Thom Brennaman’s resignation last season, because it backs up his belief that the LGBTQ community has many more allies in Major League clubhouses today than when his umpiring career began all those years ago.
“If someone has an issue with me being gay, it’s really not my issue, it’s their issue,” he says. “I got to the point where I know and am happy with who I am. If you’re not, I guess you have to deal with that.”
Films like Brokeback Mountain and Call Me By Your Name are LGBTQ+ films that are on everybody’s radars, and are films often at the top of recommendations from critics and interested audiences alike. But what about the lesser-known gems of LGBTQ+ cinema, the films specifically focused on gay relationships that typically fly under the radar?
In this Movie List from The Film Magazineare four such films; contemporary titles to add to your watchlists and revisit time and time again. These are four must-watch lesser-known gay films…
Summer Storm is a German-language film that follows Tobi, a young man who is secretly in love with his best friend, Achim. Both of the boys are members of their local rowing team and end up at camp for an upcoming competition. When an openly gay rowing team arrives at the camp, it causes havoc for Tobi’s relationship with Achim and his other teammates.
While Summer Storm is part coming-of-age film and part sports film, it’s creative enough to avoid the cliques inherent to both genres. It’s a provocative and fun coming out story, with just the right amount of heart. Its climax even features the song “Flames” by VAST. What more could anyone ask for from a gay sports film?
2. Innocent (2005)
Eric is a young man plucked from the life he knows in Hong Kong and made to move to Toronto with his family. He struggles to come to terms with his sexuality and get his bearings on this new landscape. Eric tries to form romantic relationships with those around him (including a much older lawyer), though each new romantic interest seems to leave him feeling worse and lonelier than the last.
Directed by Simon Chung, Innocence isn’t afraid to show the uglier reality of growing up gay. According to him, “I don’t just want to celebrate gay life with pretty love stories. I want to show the darker sides of gay life, and gay audiences don’t always appreciate seeing that.”
The expectation is that gay films are supposed to let the audience know that it all gets better. It’s no surprise that a film that says “maybe it doesn’t” didn’t receive wider distribution and appeal.
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