April 7, 2000

12:09 AM

A popular highschool student comes out and recives a lot of support from his fellow students, parents and teachers. Now, is this really SO strange in American that it deserves an article of this lenght? The strangest thing is that it reads like a piece from The Onion.
posted by jedrek (18 comments total)

Football team captains and co-captains essentially write the social rules. Now if your typical Joe Sixpack came out saying that he's gay, he'll most likely be ostracized immediately.
posted by hobbes at 12:25 AM on April 7, 2000

Well after reading your post I was ready to fire back (leo defense) at you. But....well then I read the article;

......The shock that a high school sports star could be gay may be attributed to the fact that no one suspected. The athlete, who turns 18 in April, stands five feet nine inches and weighs 175 pounds, defies the mainstream stereotype of a gay man......

HUH?? I don't get it. Are there new height guidelines? I really need to check my manual. You are right, this is just a ridiculously long and poorly written article. I does read like and Onion piece. As far as the question of its length and approiateness, you have to look at it in it's context. It appears in a gay publication so they can dedicate this large amount of space to such a story whether its is SO strange in America or not. Decades of repression can make one overlook this fact. If it were only written better.
posted by bvanveen at 12:59 AM on April 7, 2000

"I love my dead, gay son." --Heathers
posted by plinth at 6:38 AM on April 7, 2000

Oh my god! I am 5'8' and Weigh 160 - MAYBE I AM GAY TOO?!

Perhaps we could set up signs like at amusement parks - "You must be at least this tall to be gay"
posted by jbeaumont at 7:09 AM on April 7, 2000

maybe if you had any type of reading comprehension you would of read that sentance correctly.

"The athlete, who turns 18 in April, stands five feet nine inches and weighs 175 pounds, defies the mainstream stereotype of a gay man".

it may have been long and poorly written, but it was on the other hand, long and well informative. i found humor in some of the things they claim took place, like his best friend crying.. but i think it was a well done testimonial to how society should be.

and to the current two on this thread who dont see any stereotype towards gay men more power to you. i just find it hard to believe that you are somewhat shocked that there is one. after all, no one says they talk different or walk different either right?

and the reason this story got press was because "He has done something that, to my knowledge, has never been done before". simple. over and out.
posted by sikk at 8:54 AM on April 7, 2000

"would of"?

Don't you remember the first rule of spelling flames? Always check your spelling. :-) "Would have".

Now, we return you you to our regularly scheduled ranting.

> and to the current two on this thread who dont see any
> stereotype towards gay men more power to you. i just
> find it hard to believe that you are somewhat shocked
> that there is one. after all, no one says they talk
> different or walk different either right?

Well, no, not *all* gay men behave differently than your average straight guy. But stereotypes don't come out of thin air, either, do they.

Lots of people have working gaydar.
posted by baylink at 9:09 AM on April 7, 2000

I find this assumption that mainstream america thinks gay's are un-athletic a little odd...maybe it's because I see so much of the body-obsession of the current gay scene, maybe it's having been inside a football locker room in high school, but I always kinda assumed that a pretty fair portion of athletes are deep-closet cases. Certainly any guy who picks up a copy of one of the weighlifting mags sends up a pretty big pink-flag, in my opinion.

The stereotype of what a gay guy is, is changing. Older gay men are effeminate showtune lovers, while younger gays are mindless circuit-party/weight-circuit obsession-iks, or femme-goths.

Read any set of gay personal ad's, I bet the most common requirement you'll see is "ST8 acting"...
posted by nomisxid at 9:32 AM on April 7, 2000

er, make that 'stR8'...drink coffee, THEN post.
posted by nomisxid at 9:39 AM on April 7, 2000

baylink, that's not called spelling, its called grammar. i am sorry you are so into the fact that i obviously did not spell check or grammar check my post. god forbid.

i think what was more important was the point. and i am sorry that you completely missed it. i suppose though, it cannot be helped, seeing as how you're a complete idiot and all. =) cheers.
posted by sikk at 10:43 AM on April 7, 2000

You know, the thing I love about the Internet (and Usenet, and other things of their ilk, as Metafilter and Slashdot are) is that one need not defend oneself when one is attacked. The people watching have all the facts to make their own decisions.

In case you'd missed it, Sikk -- and I see that you did -- I *agreed* with you. You obviously missed that, as well as the light tone of my posting, but that's OK.

No, really.

Cheers,
-- jra
posted by baylink at 1:08 PM on April 7, 2000

im not defending myself when attacked, what i am trying to do is make a point and make sure someone understands it. i also never stated that you did not agree with what i said, but i take no joy in the fact that you imply that if i acknoledge a stereotype that i am being stereotypical.

just because you were born with half a brain, or more likely are choosing to only use half of what the rest of us use, doesnt mean that if you attempt to throw in justification for your posts that theyll make sence. youre still an idiot.

and if you so strongly believe that "people watching have all the facts to make their own decisions", why did you feel the need to reply to me with a hypocritical statement?
posted by sikk at 1:38 PM on April 7, 2000

Getting back to the story, they never said if Corey was still a virgin >:-)

No really, I think it would have been interesting to read if he had to take precautionary measures about any relationships he might have had before he came out.

He's a tough guy and I admire him a great deal...I have a good gay friend who was more or less rejected by his brother and parents, then got harassed so much in his career that he had to rethink where he was going in his life.
BTW, this friend is in the UK - which I think maybe goes to show that the US is a lot more tolerant to gays than US people think (going along on the prop 22 debates we've had).
posted by tomcosgrave at 7:32 PM on April 7, 2000

tom, i dont know if im following you correctly. im probably not so excuse the question if i misunderstood, but.. how is passing a law that basically says "fags and dykes cannot get married nor will we recognize such marriages from other states" tolorant?
posted by sikk at 8:45 PM on April 7, 2000

I'm not saying it's tolerant, not at all.
But I noticed that from those discussions that people in the US seem to have the opinion that there is very little tolerance for gay people there.

My whole line with my comments in those discussions was to try and make the point that in the UK, and in Ireland where I'm from, and other places as well, is that there is a lot less tolerance than in the US, and I was trying to tell the US folks that the US attitude to gays is nowhere near as intolerant as they seem to think.
posted by tomcosgrave at 8:52 PM on April 7, 2000

You're an idiot bigot, Mr Cosgrave, with half a brain to boot! Do not cross Sikk!
posted by EngineBeak at 9:01 PM on April 7, 2000

Reading all this, I started wondering why any post to MetaFilter that falls under the topic of "gay" in any way whatsoever seems to start a flame war. Then I said that thought aloud. I get it now....... honey.

Hell, forget it. I can't flame in meatspace, either, I'm sure as hell not going to be able to here.

As much as I hope that Corey's story is a true one, after I posted this article to Web Queeries, I started wondering if this was Bay Windows' April Fools' joke. It could be coincidence, but the word "April" comes up several times in that article. And, despite the level of acceptance displayed by Corey's team, I have a hard time believing that any high school football team anywhere knows the lyrics to "It's Raining Men."
posted by jason at 10:15 PM on April 7, 2000

"Corey has accomplished plenty on the football field — and a whole lot more off it."
I hope to Dog this wasn't an honest mistake.
posted by gleemax at 11:05 PM on April 7, 2000

The seemingly unlikely "Dan Woog" reference in the next-to-last paragraph was legit.
posted by EngineBeak at 11:07 PM on April 7, 2000