|
|
e
|
 |
On fire! |
Location: currently So Cal
Registered: May 2002
Messages: 1179
|
|
|
My story Into the Lion's Den is about the life of a gay high school athlete. In real life Esera Tuaolo was a gay professional football player here in America. He played for nine seasons and was closeted the entire time. He has just come out in an interview on a sports show that will air next week on HBO. Here are a couple of quotes from an article about the interview:
"Tuaolo, 34, said players routinely told gay jokes in the locker room. "They made me go further and further into depression, further and further into shame," he said."
"When Sharpe (Shannon Sharpe a former teammate) was asked what would have happened if Tuaolo came out while he was still playing in the NFL, Sharpe said: "He would have been eaten alive and he would have been hated for it." "
Here's a link to the rest of the article:
http://espn.go.com/nfl/news/2002/1024/1450380.html
My story is set in the "dark ages" of the 1970s. Tuaolo played in the more "enlightened" 1990s. Hopefully his story will help other gay athletes.
Think good thoughts,
e
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A great pity he did not play in OUR football teams, he would have been accepted. Our game is a lil tougher, NO pads and NO helmets and YES, it is a MACHO tough kinda game. Maybe the players in America havent grown up enough yet?? 
Ian Roberts distinguished himself as one of Australia's great Rugby League players in the 1990s. In 1995 he made history by becoming the first Australian sportsman to openly declare himself gay. This courageous move surprised many, both because Ian did not fit many stereotypes of what a gay man acted like and because of the minimal repercussions that resulted. Ian's career continued until the end of the millenium.
Sadly, Ian remains the only Australian gay sportsmen (and one of very few globally) courageous enough to be open about himself. He remains an inspiration to young men all over the world who see in him a brave, tough role model who stands against the clichés of what gay men can be.
Now living in Sydney, he is currently studying acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).
People have a habit of changing your direction through life
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
e
|
|
On fire! |
Location: currently So Cal
Registered: May 2002
Messages: 1179
|
|
|
It's good to see athletes and others in the public eye coming out. And good for the people of Australia for accepting him.
Rugby is a bit tougher is some ways, but not in others. I doubt that there are too many (if any) rugby players who weigh in excess of 300 pounds. But at any given time, about a third of the guys on an American football field will be that big. They wouldn't have the stamina or endurance to play rugby, but then you wouldn't want to get hit by one of them either. Strangely enough I think the pads and armour is what makes the game BOTH less tough AND tougher than rugby. American football is more violent and the hits are much harder, but players are better protected and less susceptible to serious injury. Initially, very little padding was worn in American football. The pads were developed because the game was so violent, players couldn't survive the season. One of the game's all-time greats died recently. He was only about 50. He had suffered from brain damage as a result of repeated hits to the head during his career, in spite of wearing a helmet. I played American football, yet I think people who play rugby are nuts. It IS a rough game.
Think good thoughts,
e
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
warren c. e. austin
|
 |
Likes it here |
Location: Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 247
|
|
|
... I this afternoon and early evening revisted your serial "Into the Lion's Den".
I'd read this story, as I had many by other Authors hosted through this site, in those twilight days prior to announcing my presence here to all and sundry.
Whilst I've reviewed one or two other pieces that you have written, this work has sort of got lost in the shuffle of so many those others in their bid for my attention.
"e" you have brilliantly captured the mind-set of small-town america (with a lower-case letter 'a') and the precailing attitudes of its' athletes competing at the intramural level.
Whether, or not, this accurately describes the situation in the Pro-leagues I cannot comment, but based upon my own experiences as a resident at a cross-border parochial school (during the 1960's), and further as a "enforced" particpant in Rugby, La Crosse and Hockey tournement play, the abuse me and several other gay team-mates endured at the hands of Burlington, Montpelier, and Rutland VE and Manchester, Nashua, New London and Andover NH teams and teams from other states in the North-east United States was absolutely unconscionable, and without a doubt in my mund driven exclusively by the so-called sport officals charged with administering the programmes state-side.
That I, nor did my other gay team-mates, ever become victims of similar behaviour from teams dominion-side is testimony to the
true difference in our societies, as the existed at the time. Sadly these differences today have become markedly less so, which in of itself is poor reflection on both our societies.
For telling it like it was, and may still be, a resounding:
Job well done.
Warren C. E. Austin
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
e
|
|
On fire! |
Location: currently So Cal
Registered: May 2002
Messages: 1179
|
|
|
Thanks for reading Lion's Den and I appreciate the comments. Hoopefully I'll get the last chapter finished before I get too old to type.
The sports cultiure as a whole (especially the more traditional boys sports (baseball, football, basketball, wrestling, etc.) here in the US is quite prejudiced against gays. Perhaps even moreso than the rest of our society. I grew up as a jock and had to fight against developing that sort of mentality. It wasn't easy. I could easily have become a homophobe and gotten into gay bashing despite the fact that I am gay. One of my biggest fears at the time was being found out and what better way to hid my identity than to be a bigot. Fortunately it didn't happen.
Each of the characters in Lion's Den has a little bit of me in him, including Recob. He's what I could have become. In fact I could have become any one of them and almost was Chris. Fortunately that didn't happen either.
I wish that the US could be more accepting or at least more tolerant, but it isn't. Quite likely it will take a while.
Think good thoughts,
e
|
|
|
|
|
Goto Forum:
|
] 
A Place of Safety
Search
Help
Register
Login
Home
Real life can be worse than fiction 
