LaCrosse jos Wisns ci banng gay nversn therapy, but practice remas legal rt of state | WUWM 89.7 FM - Milwkee's NPR

Contents:

• HARVARD LACROSSE PLAYER TO TEAMMAT: ‘GUYS, I’M GAY’
• GAY ATHLET IN LACROSSE – WHAT’S THE PROBLEM HERE?
• GAYT PLAC IN WISNS FOR 2020
• MICHELLE TUMOLO IS AN OPENLY GAY LACROSSE SUPERSTAR
• GAY U.S. LACROSSE GOALIE ME OUT TO ‘NORMALIZE WHAT MAK DIFFERENT’
• GAY LLEGE PLAYER SAYS LACROSSE NEEDS TO NORMALIZE G OUT
• 12-YEAR-OLD TO GAY LACROSSE PLAYER: 'THE DAY I GOT THAT VIO WAS THE BT DAY OF MY LIFE'
• LACROSSE JOS WISNS CI BANNG GAY NVERSN THERAPY, BUT PRACTICE REMAS LEGAL RT OF STATE

HARVARD LACROSSE PLAYER TO TEAMMAT: ‘GUYS, I’M GAY’

ELI5:Why do people ll lacrosse gay? I keep hearg people say that lacrosse is gay and how baseball is better. Noah Knopf was received warmly after g out to his Harvard teammat, but says the sport has to al wh an graed homophobia.

“I wanted to talk to you this morng to tell you that I’m gay. “I uld tell people that I’m gay.

When I was 19, I heard on a podst that the new ernor of Colorado was gay, and felt for a moment that the world might be changg.

GAY ATHLET IN LACROSSE – WHAT’S THE PROBLEM HERE?

Never had I properly acknowledged the fact that I was gay. While bshg my teeth a few nights before talkg to my parents, I realized that I had never even said the words “I’m gay” out loud before. “I’m gay, ” I whispered the mirror, and sed to myself.

I also felt the need to expla myself my first few nversatns about beg gay. I’m gay. I had asked my iends and fay to keep our nversatns private bee, after wnsg the way that people lacrosse talk about beg gay, I wanted my teammat to hear the news om me.

GAYT PLAC IN WISNS FOR 2020

I believed that after three years on the team, they would know me as Noah first and the gay kid send, but our locker room was not immune to the homophobic jok and sults that are the norm men’s lacrosse. Although my experience as a gay whe man is different om Ellison’s experience as a Black man, his words spired me.

MICHELLE TUMOLO IS AN OPENLY GAY LACROSSE SUPERSTAR

But one factor I began to nsir was the way that people talk about beg gay our culture. For the first time throughout the fall, I started payg closer attentn to the jok, sults and ments about beg gay that had surround me sce I was a teenager. I first heard the word “faggot” locker rooms when I was fifth gra — before I unrstood what meant to be gay.

Even the progrsive circl where I me om, kids sually threw around homophobic jok and sults que routely, cludg those of who would have said we believed was pletely OK to be gay. I’m embarrassed to say that I too ma homophobic jok and lghed at homophobic sults.

I believe that a siar gnive dissonance plays a role the wispread homophobic speech that pervas the sport of lacrosse. I am sure that a few people our sport do ed hate gay people and e hateful language to exprs their feelgs.

GAY U.S. LACROSSE GOALIE ME OUT TO ‘NORMALIZE WHAT MAK DIFFERENT’

But still, homophobic language flows eely practilly every llege lacrosse locker room om stunts at some of the world’s most ele universi. Homophobic jok still richet through the group chats of high school lacrosse players across Ameri. So many young people our sport still throw around homophobic sentiments sually and thoughtlsly, my past self among them, as if there is some kd of divi between their beliefs and their words, as if is ed tly possible to “not mean like that.

When I began to nsir g out, I thought I wanted to be the gay kid who “gets . ” I thought I wanted to be the gay kid who was ol wh my iends llg each other “fags” and referrg to thgs they didn’t like as gay.

GAY LLEGE PLAYER SAYS LACROSSE NEEDS TO NORMALIZE G OUT

They don’t get that the homophobic culture of lacrosse matters.

From the way that my iends and I joked growg up, I learned that beg gay was equivalent to beg annoyg and unmanly. It took me a long time to unlearn the homophobic ias that I did not know I had nsumed. After years of nfn and silence; after years of uncertaty and shame; after a long journey through challeng I did not know I uld face — after 22 years of life, this was how the Harvard men’s lacrosse team felt about me beg gay.

12-YEAR-OLD TO GAY LACROSSE PLAYER: 'THE DAY I GOT THAT VIO WAS THE BT DAY OF MY LIFE'

I wrote to say that you n be openly gay, bisexual, non-bary, transgenr or queer — you n be whoever is that you are — and you n play the sport of lacrosse. Our sport has a problem wh homophobia and I thk ’s time that we addrs .

If you are a person lacrosse who homophobic language, you should nsir the fact that those words n hurt ep and plited ways.

And you should also nsir the possibily that the way you talk about beg gay uld be hurtg the people you love. There are more gay people lacrosse than you realize. I remember one of my iends tellg me ma him sick to his stomach to thk about the way he had talked before he knew I was gay.

LACROSSE JOS WISNS CI BANNG GAY NVERSN THERAPY, BUT PRACTICE REMAS LEGAL RT OF STATE

I had said homophobic thgs as well, and I am an actual gay person. I hope we n end our culture of homophobia.

This week, I was talkg at a school wh an emergg group of terted lacrosse players, and I brought up the ia of recg openly gay/lbian athlet om other sports, and om wh the muny, to help grow the game. But at the end of the day, all of the exclnary practic are makg me ask the qutn: are “lax bros” homophobic? Homosexualy is still not somethg that is talked about very openly our society.

However, wh all that said, and wh all this growth, is the marketg of lacrosse broad enough to appeal to the Gay/Lbian muny?