Comments on: Anders Lindegaard and the likelihood of silent gay soccer players

By: mvktr2

mvktr2 — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 20:19:35 +0000

wow I need to proof read! sorry

By: mvktr2

mvktr2 — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 20:18:24 +0000

A couple thoughts:
It’s very hard, I think, to find trustworthy numbers quantifying homosexuality within any population, nationality, or subset. It’s so castigated in our society there are going to simply be people whom won’t answer the question and others whom are so strong in favor of it they’re willing to influence the numbers a different way. I didn’t click on the link citing the 1:28.5 ratio, but where such a survey was conducted would have EXTREME impact upon it’s accuracy. I would think nationally it would take a sampling of tens of thousands just to get close given the difference of politics and sexual identity migration (yes sexual identity migration happens) between rural New England vs rural Midwest vs urban Southeast vs urban West Coast. Just a thought.

Additionally (I was an art major, now a methodist minister) my own experience tells me that an overwhelming majority of homosexual men are more feminine than the general male population (most likely greatly impacting sports participation and I knew none whom participated in sports in HS), but that’s far from statistically accurate for anyone whom knows what a ‘bear’ is within the gay community (translation: ‘manly’ man). Conversely my college softball team (it was a historically women’s university with only female sports oddly enough) was comprised to my knowlege of 1 hetero girls, and the rest were all lesbian or bi. Had a good friend who played junior college softball and said she was the only heterosexual player on the team and she felt so uncomfortable she didn’t change in the locker room. For thousands of years we’ve known ‘apparently’ disproportionate numbers of homosexuals have been drawn to stage/theatre/acting. The point being iit’s evident to me that certain activities at certain institutions draw higher numbers of gay-lesbian-bi participants and logic dictates certain activities in certain institutions would draw disproportionately low numbers of GLBT participants. I’m not sure how much investigating has been done into it and I suspect it’s under researched because it ‘labels’ GLBT, but at the same time labels all of us. There’s a lot to learn!

By: mvktr2

mvktr2 — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 20:12:11 +0000

Good on Lindegaard for having this conversation and on Mr. Farley for sharing it. It’s worth discussing. I think it’s important because it’s extremely divisive within certain segments of society and effects a great number of young people in particular. 3% of the US population is roughly 10 million people, that’s not chump change and they matter. Per Richard Farley’s comment’s on Rapinoe in a different piece, I see her as a women’s soccer player whom happens to be lesbian. However for a 15 year old girl whom might be struggling with attraction to other girls she might stand as an important model that guess what, things are gonna be okay. We have no reason to believe our child is gay, but her mother and I both have gone out of our way to tell her that if she were we’d still love her with all our being. Point being this stuff is so confusing to young people and so divisive within society that simply talking about it is important on so many levels. (fwiw I don’t think it has to be discussed at every turn and in certain populations such as my Christian brothers and sister [I'm a methodist minister] spend too much time one it, but it applies here)

By: wfjackson3

wfjackson3 — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 06:09:18 +0000

“Isn’t it also nearly statistically impossible that the NBA is 78% black and only 17% white considering that 72% of the population of the US is white?”

Schlom, that is something that can be evaluated and tied to a variety of socioeconomic factors, trends, and choices. There are no such factors, trends, and choices available to explain homosexuality. There is no empirical evidence at all to suggest that the representation of homosexuality is significantly different in any professional field than it is in the general population.

By: schlom

schlom — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 01:25:57 +0000

Isn’t it also nearly statistically impossible that the NBA is 78% black and only 17% white considering that 72% of the population of the US is white?

It’s certainly possible that there is no MLS player that is gay – simply because gay young males don’t play sports when they are younger. Whether it’s because they have no gay role moldels (which is going to be a problem that feeds on itself) or because they simply aren’t interested I don’t know. It seems like people are pushing for a solution for a problem that may or may not exist.

By: Richard Farley

Richard Farley — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 01:02:28 +0000

Good shout on @LeanderLastNameNoFit’s story. Worth a read if you’re not up on the Testo story.

By: kjmlarsen

kjmlarsen — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 01:00:28 +0000

I believe David Testo also told Leander [I'd butcher his last name so I'm not going to try] in the SB Nation long form piece that Testo had been contacted by several gay active players since he came out. So yeah, they exist.

By: joeyt360

joeyt360 — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:58:27 +0000

I think Lindegard is right on all points. I suspect a gay player has much more to worry about from some psychotic homophobic fan than he does from the locker room. And you see the same intolerance issues in the stands with regards to race all the time.

By: Richard Farley

Richard Farley — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 22:52:17 +0000

You could, but that assumption is so statistically impossible that you might as well stay inside all the time. You’re far more likely to be hit by lightning multiple times today than live in a world without silent gay footballers.

By: schlom

schlom — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 22:51:07 +0000

Sure, but you could also agree that it’s possible that the number is actually zero?

By: Richard Farley

Richard Farley — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 22:24:43 +0000

That’s not my reasoning at all. Within the piece, I even take a step back from the 3.5% number to say six-to-eight players per league. 3.5 percent in a 20 team league with 25-man rosters would be 35 players per league.

By: schlom

schlom — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 22:18:18 +0000

Why does everyone assume that the percentage of homosexuals in sports is the same as the percentages in the general population? Obviously the percentage of homosexuals in the women’s team sports is much higher than 3.5% so couldn’t the opposite be true in men’s sports? By your reasoning there should be equal percentages of gays in men’s figure skating, Team USA women’s softball, Team USA women’s soccer, and the NBA yet we all know that’s not true.