“The court was my safe haven, a place where I could be myself without worrying about how others viewed or judge me,” Tiffany Slair said.
Slair attended St. Elizabeth’s high school when she fell in love with basketball. At a very young age Slair knew she was different but she could not put her finger on it until the seventh grade. She was hiding something from the world until she was comfortable enough to confront her parents about it during her junior year of high school.
Slair was gay; she claims however she did a great job hiding her sexuality from friends and teammates.
Slair went on to play basketball for Ithaca College. Ithaca was where Tiffany felt most comfortable opening up to close friends along with some teammates. “The girls I talked to were great accepting me for who I was, win or lose, the outcome didn’t matter because I knew I was accepted for who I am,” Slair said.
Slair battled with whether it was the right time for her to come out and be honest with her family along with her teammates.
It has taken years for athletes to be comfortable with coming out at any level – high school, college or professional. One of the many problems is the maturity level. High school is usually the time many homosexuals tend to be comfortable enough to come out and express their sexuality. The problem is that others around them many not be mature enough to listen, or even understand. Therefore they start to make fun of someone for not fitting in.
Former Baylor basketball star Brittany Griner, who has come out publicly about being gay, has written a book. She talks about the struggles of being a gay athlete in the shadows of teammates and coaches throughout the years. Griner said, “You can be black, white, and blue, purple, whatever. As long as you come here and do what you need to do and hoop, I don’t care.”
This is the problem with many universities. Their mindset is as long as a player performs up to standards there is no big deal with their sexuality. The problem happens when an athlete’s performance starts to decline. Will schools and organizations want to put up with all the media and hype about the player?
Former University of Missouri star Michael Sam has come out about his sexuality. Many media members have stated that some professional teams will stay away from Sam due to the regulation and lack of performance. Before Sam’s pro day Sam was projected to be drafted in the first two rounds of the draft. Those two rounds guarantee a roster spot on a professional organization.
Now with Sam’s big announcement and a poor performance in his pro day he may not even get drafted at all. Many speculate that teams do not want to risk locker room tension so they will pass on Sam. I’ll call it what it seems to be: discrimination against not only one player but an entire community.
Maybe if organizations started asking players instead of making assumptions, all professional sports teams can accept openly gay players and move on.
Sports Illustrated conducted a poll on whether a player’s sexual orientation matters to other athletes. Seven players answered yes and 44 answered no. Another question asked was “I had teammates and coaches who used homophobic slurs this past season.”32 athletes answered true and 19 answered false.
The culture of locker rooms would need to change dramatically. The first few openly gay players will struggle just like others players who have been discriminated against in the past. History will continue to repeat itself, players will continue to fight for what they believe in. Homosexual athletes there sanctuary is there field of play. Openly homosexual athletes will lay the foundation and provide a role model for other homosexual athletes.
