Michael Sam—the SEC Defensive Player of the Year and NFL hopeful—announced last week that he is gay. His candor has shaken the football world. If drafted, he would be the first openly gay player in NFL history.

Yes, in case you thought you stepped into that Doritos Super Bowl commercial time machine, this is still 2014. Seventy-five years ago, Michael Sam’s name might have been Jackie Robinson. And yet, today, we’re more comfortable allowing a convicted dog abuser to take the ball than we are with a gay man making tackles.

While Attorney General Eric Holder recently announced that the Justice Department would recognize same-sex couples, regardless of whether or not individual states do, why is it still so awkward for there to be gay men in professional sports?

Despite being an award-winning football player, Sports Illustrated reports that Sam is likely to have a harder time in the NFL—if he makes it at all—based on anonymous sources from the league. “In blunt terms, they project a significant drop in Sam’s draft stock, a publicity circus and an NFL locker room culture not prepared to deal with an openly gay player.”

One source told SI “I don’t think football is ready for [an openly gay player] just yet,” adding that, “In the coming decade or two, it’s going to be acceptable, but at this point in time it’s still a man’s-man game. To call somebody a [gay slur] is still so commonplace. It’d chemically imbalance an NFL locker room and meeting room.”

The official response from the NFL was one of support. John Elway, former quarterback for the Denver Broncos (and Super Bowl XXXIII MVP) and now the executive vice president of football operations for the Broncos, offered kind words of support to Sam. “I applaud Michael Sam and wish him the very best as he continues the pursuit of his NFL dream,” he said. “As we look toward the combine and draft, we will evaluate Michael just like any other draft prospect – on the basis of his ability, character and NFL potential. His announcement will have no effect on how we see him as a football player.” But, an NFL assistant coach called Sam’s decision “not a smart move,” as he said it “legitimately affects [his] potential earnings.”

Even after NBA center Jason Collins shook the sports world last spring by coming out, Sam’s case is clearly being received differently. Collins is a veteran basketball player closer to the end of his career than the beginning. And basketball, even in all its splendor, is no NFL. It’s (quite literally and figuratively) a different ball game. Basketball, we love it, of course. But it’s for the freakishly tall. The scoring is ridiculously uneventful. It loses its power in a way that football doesn’t. Football is for gladiators. They weather extreme weather and the burden of lugging around heavy gear. They go to battle every week in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans. These men are our modern warriors. That’s not as glorious as it sounds, though.

And for Sam, a rookie stepping into the intensity of the NFL as the first openly gay man, the situation is notably different. At least it is from the executive perspective. “There are guys in locker rooms that maturity-wise cannot handle it or deal with the thought of that,” an assistant coach told SI. “There’s nothing more sensitive than the heartbeat of the locker room. If you knowingly bring someone in there with that sexual orientation, how are the other guys going to deal with it? It’s going to be a big distraction. That’s the reality. It shouldn’t be, but it will be.”

That attitude is partly because football is, like one anonymous source told SI, still perceived as a “man’s man” kind of game. (Even though this writer is just one of many dedicated and knowledgeable female fans. Go Steelers.) Worshiping those modern warriors comes at a cost. Just watch the Super Bowl and all the inglorious commercials that appeal to machismo and male insecurity. Drive faster cars. Drink better beer. Eat more meat for god’s sake, you’re a man! For the gay or straight viewer, the culture that surrounds football does more to defeat a man’s confidence than to boost it up. Everything about football, except for the game itself, tells men they’re not good enough. The last thing those men can handle is someone on the field making them consider their own sexuality—whether they’re gay or not. Nor do they want to have to consider the sexual preference of their friends, brothers, fathers, sons.

Why? Because even though we shame Russia for Sochi’s ridiculous attitude towards gay people, we allow our culture to do the same. We’re happy to “tolerate” or “accept” gayness as long as it occurs outside of the places we seek sanctuary. And football, for some men (certainly not all), is probably the only place where they feel comfortable touching another man—whether that’s a tackle on the field or a high-five at the bar watching it happen. That’s not a fault of football. Or gay men. It’s a deep-rooted problem in our culture that needs to go away. Men—like women, like gay men, like transgender people—are humans first. They’re flesh, blood, and everything that holds us together. Who we love doesn’t matter nearly as much as why we love. It’s just what humans do. We can’t explain it, so why do we judge it?

When Jackie Robinson stepped out onto the baseball field as the first black man in the major leagues, true Dodgers fans eventually came to see him as just a player, because a “black player” was proven irrelevant. As a fan, there was simply no logic, no statistic that factored in the color of his skin. All that could be measured was whether he was good or bad at the game. And once his talent became obvious, despite the decades of segregation in sports, Robinson’s achievements stood on their own. And then they rewrote history.

So perhaps the coaches and executive personnel who spoke with Sports Illustrated have it wrong. And perhaps it’s why they hid their opinions anonymously. After all, today’s young NFL players, they’re coming to the game from respectable universities where diversity—in race and sexual preferences—is widely varied, and has been for decades. That’s maybe not the case for some of the coaches and administrative staff who still believe it’s a “man’s man” sport. But, just like the Super Bowl commercials this year failed to impress most viewers, perhaps old views about what constitutes a qualified player fail to serve the league too. Maybe the locker room culture actually isn’t that insecure. Maybe the fans aren’t either.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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A weekly look at sex and culture, by the numbers.

40%: Decrease in fertility rates from mice kept on a normal sleep/wake schedule and those whose sleep patterns were disrupted in a recent Northwestern study

4700: Age of a Chalcolithic man found buried in the dress and manner of a woman in a Bronze Age settlement near Prague

90: Minutes a night the average penis becomes erect during sleep

13: Anniversary of “Courage,” a Catholic sports camp for celibate gay men in Philadelphia

15 years: Maximum sentence faced by a 43-year-old New York superintendent accused of having sex with a tenant’s Labrador

Image: woodleywonderworks

The post Sex by Numbers: Animal Attraction appeared first on EcoSalon.

Gay rights, gay marriage, and Rick Perry’s war.

Rick Perry’s recent campaign ad, which makes an inexplicable connection between gay rights and religion, has tapped into the soul of the internet with over 660,000 “dislikes” on his YouTube video and a scant 21,000 “likes.” With Perry blaming Obama for a “war on religion” and promising to “fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage,” campaign followers can’t help but take note. Are there really so many sex-crazed gay men enabled by liberal pagans anxious to destroy life as we know it? Just who, exactly, is Rick Perry trying to unite? Certainly not every American.

We caught up with author and photographer Scott Pasfield, whose photographic survey of gay men in America, Gay in America, documents the lives of 140 gay men from all walks of life. According to the Gay in America site, the book is “joyful and somber, reflective and celebratory, each narrative and image is an enlightening look into the variety of gay life in the United States.”

Here’s what Pasfield had to say about the recent happenings with the Republican politico.

Perry’s ad criticizes Obama for reversing the ban on gays in the military. Do you think this ad helps him in any way with voters or just made him look ridiculous?

He certainly thinks that it will help him with voters. The sad fact is that he’ll probably get some to come out and vote for him based on this ideology. If his people did the research, they would see that the numbers just don’t add up, that overwhelmingly, by two to one in most polls, Americans support gays serving in the military. But a lot of closeted gays preferred the system the way it was; the military and church are two places that allow for men to exist, and flourish actually, outside of a normal heterosexual relationship.

As far as I’m concerned, him looking ridiculous is a fringe benefit to this all. It actually brings to light the absurdity of comparing gay rights and school prayer.

With gay right’s groups circulating a petition asking that the ad on YouTube get the “dislike” button, do you think this sends a message to Perry that he might need a new game plan with connecting to voters?

You know, I am not sure how this will affect him. He’ll try anything to climb back to the top of the heap. And I’ve found that often, one’s beliefs about gay rights are generally viewed along party lines. The problem however, is that historically those that shout the loudest against gays usually understand sexual attraction to the same sex all too well. After watching Perry’s new ad, it doesn’t seem that far fetched that he himself could be gay, as many people have noted.  I mean, he is wearing the “Brokeback” jacket that is very similar to the one worn by a couple of the guys in the book and used music inspired by a gay composer.

In your book Gay in America, you feature gay men of all ages, financial brackets, lifestyles and (the cover), a gay man in the military. Why do you think a man like Rick Perry sees an openly gay man serving in the military as wrong?

I can only imagine his reasoning. To me, Perry seems to indicate that he believes that having gays serve in the military is an immoral issue as a country. And since he compares it to prayer in schools it becomes clear his beliefs against gays are religion-based. We all know the religion-based arguments against homosexuals, no need to repeat them here. One can turn on the TV and see the hatred being served up daily if you have enough cable channels. The reality is that gays and lesbians are part of society. We are here for a reason. In an overpopulated world gays make perfect sense. It’s like Mother Nature checking herself a little, no?

And we make the world a much more beautiful place, especially considering we don’t usually have a family to take care of. We contribute a tremendous amount and just want to live with the freedoms that everyone has, and that should include defending the country.

Religion is a hot topic between Republicans and Democrats. Do you think it has any place in a presidential campaign? Should we be praying in schools?

Religion is a hot topic for so many Americans. And so many people in the world. It is the basis for so much love and hatred at the same time. It’s sad, really. I absolutely do not think it has a place in a presidential campaign. Our country was founded and exists today because church and state are separate. It certainly should continue that way. In my opinion, we should not be praying in public schools – let people pray at home. Let them be the religion their parents want them to be and hopefully become educated enough to question that religion at some point in their lives and come to terms with their own beliefs.

What about your book. How can it help people understand gay culture better?

The book serves up American gay men from all walks of life, with amazing stories, written in the first person. They are incredibly honest and revealing of what it means to be gay in this country today, especially outside of the urban areas most people think all gays want to live. Stereotypes are certainly put to the test and laid to rest at the same time. I learned an incredible amount from all these men and in turn learned a lot about myself, which anyone can do, straight or gay.

Times have certainly changed since the Bush years, but big business has only gotten stronger and would love another like-minded president that would favor the rich. I fear that they will stop at nothing to make that happen.

I just read this comment online about Perry’s ad:

“In a political system which is so corrupted by corporate cash, that a presidential candidate needs $1,000,000,000 to stand a realistic chance of getting elected, I hardly think Rick Perry’s absurdly offensive advert really matters. LGBT rights are a polarizing issue in the US. They take the spotlight away from the grim reality that democracy is dying in the U.S. The USA – a government of the people, by the people, for the corporations.”

In my opinion, that hits the nail on the head – that the government has basically been bought by corporations. And diverting attention away from that is key for the system as it exists today. Politicians know that using current decisive social issues is an easy way to swing voters to one side of the fence or the other. Perry is no exception.

From Gay in America by Scott Pasfield, published by Welcome Books. © 2011 Scott Pasfield. www.gayinamerica.us

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