(credit: New York Times)
“What’s wrong is that in 2012, in phases of American life, people remain in the closet out of fear,” writes Marcos Breton in the Sacramento Bee on Sunday. It’s been one year since the end of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, but we’re in the midst of a culture war on the road to the 2012 election.
“The way Kevin McClatchy figured it, he had to choose. He could indulge his dream of presiding over a big-time professional sports team, or he could be open about his sexuality,” reads the column in The New York Times. “The two paths didn’t dovetail.
“He went with sports, and in February 1996, at the age of 33, became the youngest owner in major league baseball when he led a group of investors who bought the Pittsburgh Pirates. For the next 11 years, he was the team’s managing general partner and chief executive officer, not to mention its public face. And for all of that time, he took pains not to let his players, the owners of other teams or anyone beyond a tiny circle of family and close friends learn that he was gay.
“He stepped away from the Pirates in 2007, but it took five years for him to reach the point where he felt even remotely comfortable sitting down with a journalist, as he did with me recently at his home here, about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh, to talk about his private life. Secrecy is a hard habit to break. And the world of professional sports, to which he is still connected, isn’t exactly crowded with proud, out gay men and women.
The rest of the article is here.
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I am glad we are getting to a point where people don’t have to hide their sexuality. I wish it didn’t matter because it is really nobody’s business but unfortunately in our culture it matters. When high profile people like Kevin McClatchy announce to the world I’m gay and I don’t care who knows. It helps many who are struggling, especially teenagers who are the most at risk for suicide to come to terms with their sexuality.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/one-towns-war-on-gay-teens-20120202
What Ben said.
And being gay is a reason for not being able to do your job?
Can someone please explain that one to me in a logical basis?