Punching Down The Closet Door
October 4, 2012 8:58 AM   Subscribe

World Boxing Organization featherweight title winner and former Olympic boxer Orlando Cruz has come out as boxing's first openly gay athlete.
posted by hippybear (20 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Yes! Very good news. NOW! Can the Orioles beat the Rangers to make my week complete?
posted by josher71 at 9:00 AM on October 4, 2012 [2 favorites]


Cool.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:02 AM on October 4, 2012


It is completely fantastic that at this pace we are going to run out of gay firsts by the end of the decade.
posted by ChrisHartley at 9:04 AM on October 4, 2012 [13 favorites]


I'm afraid someone is going to try and beat him up over this.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:04 AM on October 4, 2012 [15 favorites]


Related.
posted by griphus at 9:05 AM on October 4, 2012 [6 favorites]


It is completely fantastic that at this pace we are going to run out of gay firsts by the end of the decade.

I read this as gay fists originally.. which was funny because of boxing... and then funny because of... nevermind.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:15 AM on October 4, 2012 [13 favorites]


no no go ahead, finish what you were thinking
posted by twist my arm at 9:17 AM on October 4, 2012 [2 favorites]


I'd always had my suspicions about Don Flamenco, personally.
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:19 AM on October 4, 2012 [6 favorites]


Canadian silver medalist Marc Leduc came out in 1993, a year after winning the medal. He had retired from boxing after a short pro career. He passed away in 2009.

Savoy Howe fought in Toronto’s first-ever sanctioned women’s boxing event in 1992, and was interviewed by CNN about being a lesbian boxer a year later. She founded the Toronto Newsgirls Boxing Club in 1996.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 9:30 AM on October 4, 2012 [1 favorite]


Bonus points to the first interviewer to get tape of Manny Pacquiao saying something stupid about this.
posted by Optamystic at 9:57 AM on October 4, 2012 [4 favorites]


This is awesome. Congratulations and big ups to Orlando Cruz.

Maybe it shouldn't be surprising, but it's interesting to me how most out gay male athletes are in more individual-focused sports, especially in the USA. I bet there will be some big changes in that distribution over the next few decades.
posted by en forme de poire at 10:15 AM on October 4, 2012




I read this as gay fists originally.. which was funny because of boxing... and then funny because of... nevermind.
posted by MCMikeNamara

no no go ahead, finish what you were thinking
posted by twist my arm


eponym-ouch
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:42 AM on October 4, 2012 [3 favorites]


well... i dared you so i guess i deserve that picture in my head. hee.

Optamystic i thought you just wanted to see a fight, but i didn't realize pacquiao had a homophobic comment kerfuffle. sad.
posted by twist my arm at 11:01 AM on October 4, 2012


"Bonus points to the first interviewer to get tape of Manny Pacquiao saying something stupid about this."

Don't you mean Mayweather?
posted by pez_LPhiE at 11:19 AM on October 4, 2012



Well good for him. I hope that lots of folks see him for the postive role model that he is.

Husbunny and I are boxing fans, although the featherweight fights are more like watching motes float around in a sunbeam.

Now we're starting to be concerned that the sport is contributing to brain injury and it makes me sad that I like something that's bad for the athletes.

I'm conflicted.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 11:42 AM on October 4, 2012 [1 favorite]


It gets welter...
posted by chavenet at 12:55 PM on October 4, 2012


Emile Griffith came out as bisexual, but he was no longer competing at the time. There is speculation that Benny Paret's casual slur about Griffith's sexuality at a weigh-in provoked the round of twenty-nine succesive blows that killed Paret.
posted by infinitewindow at 1:08 PM on October 4, 2012


See also: Shad Smith; first openly gay MMA fighter.
posted by ShutterBun at 4:42 PM on October 4, 2012


Emile Griffith came out as bisexual, but he was no longer competing at the time. There is speculation that Benny Paret's casual slur about Griffith's sexuality at a weigh-in provoked the round of twenty-nine succesive blows that killed Paret.

From Griffith's autobiography:
"I keep thinking how strange it is... I kill a man and most people forgive me. However I love a man and many say this is unforgivable and this makes me an evil person. So, even though I never went to jail, I have been in prison most of my life.
Good article on him here.
posted by Hartster at 1:13 AM on October 5, 2012 [2 favorites]


... and that's why it's called "cruzing"
posted by kcds at 5:53 AM on October 5, 2012


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