Homophobia, 2012: Alive and Well in the Sports World - What about Cycling?

My aunt writes a Chicago Now blog called South Side Sports Chick. She is also a professor of social work and lives in the northern California town of Chico.  Of course she and my uncle ride bikes - what hippie up there doesn't ride a bicycle?

 

 The BEST bday gift we ever got her, a Sox jersey

 

Her latest blog is called Homophobia, 2012: Alive and Well in the Sports World. 

 It made me think, is there homophobia in professional bicycle racing (int'l or national) or is it "different" than other professional sports?

 

I cut and pasted a few portions of her blog.

Last week, Yunel Escobar, SS for the Toronto Blue Jays, was suspended for 3 games. He wore a blantantly homophobic slur written into the black stripes under his eyes in Spanish, “Tu ere maricon.”  Translated, this means “you are a faggot.”.......

....Which brings me back to 1990, as I was completing my PhD at Loyola University and teaching at U. of I. Circle Campus. On my way to work, I was listening to an NPR interview with Dave Pallone, about his new book, “Behind the Mask:  My Double Life in Baseball.”

Pallone was the umpire who had that infamous altercation with Pete Rose, which is still available on You Tube.  So here was a man who wanted nothing more than to be an umpire since his boyhood days of growing up in Beantown........

On the radio, Pallone talked about being gay. In the closet.  An MLB umpire from Boston, fulfilling his childhood dream.  And no one to turn to, and the difficulty of living with this secret his entire life.

But after 10 years, MLB and Commissioner Bart Giamatti trumped up various charges, accusing Pallone’s involvement in a “teen-age sexual ring.”  No evidence was found to this hideous accusation, but was the excuse to remove him from baseball, period.

......Fast forward to 2002:  my commute to Sacramento State as a professor, listening to KNBR, “The Sports Leader” from SF Bay Area radio.  The show’s host was Gary Radnich. He reported how the SF 49er’s running back, Garrison Hearst, responded to the recent “coming out as gay” of Esera Tuaolo, an NFL defensive tackle.

Hearst responded by saying, “ Hell no! I don’t want any faggots on my team…(or) in this locker room.”  It took three weeks for Hearst to apologize.

Tualo played for several teams from 1991-1999, reaching the Super Bowl with the Atlanta Falcons in 1999.  Esera reported of various homophobic slurs simply thrown out as “acceptable language,” in the general locker room, throughout his career.  His book is “Alone in the Trenches: My Life as a Gay Man in the NFL” (2006).

 

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Permalink Reply by Janice Gagerman on October 3, 2012 at 8:08am

Hey Julie, thanks for putting this in Chainlink. Can anyone verify that you have seen or experienced this in the world of cycling yourselves?  Thanks. Julie's Aunt Janice, from the  South Side of Chicago, but now living in California. 

Permalink Reply by Gene Tenner on October 3, 2012 at 11:43am

I rode in the Gay Pride Parade for my Alderman, James Cappleman, by leading the contingent in my trike with figure-eights and circles. A few days later I was headed north on Broadway in the right lane when a bicyclist flew off the sidewalk from my right and barely missed my rear wheel. He narrowly passed me then cut in front of me, missing me by inches. I sounded my air-horn, and when he turned to look at me I asked, "what's the problem?" 

"Faggot," he replied as he turned to look back at me. 

I sounded my air-horn again and got the same response. 

I knew he was a bigot, but it was not until a little while later that I realized that he thought that I was gay, because he saw me in the Gay Pride Parade.

Not only stupid, but ignorant, too.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on October 3, 2012 at 12:02pm

Do homophobes go to watch the gay pride parade?

I think not...

Permalink Reply by Derek on October 4, 2012 at 3:59am

Probably not intentionally.

James BlackHeron said:

Do homophobes go to watch the gay pride parade?

I think not...

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on October 4, 2012 at 4:12am

Good point!  Maybe it is like unintentionally going to see CCM?

LOL!


Derek said:

Probably not intentionally.

James BlackHeron said:

Do homophobes go to watch the gay pride parade?

I think not...

Permalink Reply by Gene Tenner on October 4, 2012 at 7:14am

This is not the first Gay Pride Parade I have been in and I doubt it would be the last. Being in one from start to finish and observing one from a single spot are two different experiences. I can tell you from in-the-parade experience that it draws a good cross-section of people from all over the city and suburbs who stand along the street and watch the parade go by: gay, straight, young, old, sober, any-excuse-to-get-drunk-on-a-Sunday partiers, all nationalities, pro-LGBT and anti-LGBT, including swear-like-a-sailor finger-flippers, sign-carrying bible-quoters and closted homophobes.

Bigotry is alive in cycling, football and baseball. It cuts across all social, economic, cultural, racial, sexual and religious lines and knows no boundaries.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on October 4, 2012 at 9:20am

It's good to see that Pride is having such a high level of visibility.   That is actually a really good thing.

I don't give a shit about bigots -if only we lived in a society that didn't give folks coercive power over others it wouldn't matter one bit.  

But Statists gonna State...

Gene Tenner said:

This is not the first Gay Pride Parade I have been in and I doubt it would be the last. Being in one from start to finish and observing one from a single spot are two different experiences. I can tell you from in-the-parade experience that it draws a good cross-section of people from all over the city and suburbs who stand along the street and watch the parade go by: gay, straight, young, old, sober, any-excuse-to-get-drunk-on-a-Sunday partiers, all nationalities, pro-LGBT and anti-LGBT, including swear-like-a-sailor finger-flippers, sign-carrying bible-quoters and closted homophobes.

Bigotry is alive in cycling, football and baseball. It cuts across all social, economic, cultural, racial, sexual and religious lines and knows no boundaries.

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