David Kopay and Ian Roberts live on different sides of the Pacific Ocean, but both took giant leaps of faith when they came out — and at a time when it had never been done in their sports.
Kopay is a 78-year-old former NFL running back living in Palm Springs, California, and known as the first professional athlete to reveal that he was gay. He came out in 1975 after his NFL career ended.
In 1995, Roberts became the first high-profile Australian sports person and first professional rugby player to come out as gay.
About 45 years after Kopay’s open disclosure, and 25 after Roberts’, the men are united in their disappointment that a higher proportion of gay athletes have not come out.
Kopay’s eight-year NFL career spanned five teams, beginning with the San Francisco 49ers in 1964.
“It’s horrible to hear that kids are being targeted. I’ve sacrificed so much to try and change this problem,” Kopay added.
Roberts, who has forged an acting career since retiring, played for two more rugby league seasons after coming out. A powerful front-row forward who played for the Australia national team, Roberts wishes he had done it sooner.
“It was the worst-kept secret. Everyone knew I was gay. I wish I had come out from Day 1,” the 55-year-old Roberts said from a movie set near Sydney. “It is kind of empowering when you come out. People came to me and said how happy they were for me.”
Kopay’s comments about homophobic language and Roberts’ about coming out as gay are at the forefront of two studies published yesterday by Melbourne’s Monash University.
The first analyzed survey responses from 1,173 lesbian, gay and bisexual people aged 15 to 21 and living in the US, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland.
The authors described it as the first study to investigate whether LGB youth who “come out” to teammates are more likely to be a target of homophobic behavior than those who do not.
“Some gay athletes who have come out as adults have said fears that LGB young people will be the target of homophobic behaviors if they come out to their teammates are unfounded,” lead author Erik Denison of Monash’s Behavioural Sciences Research Laboratory said. “We hoped this was true, given that young people generally have positive attitudes toward gay people.”
The study showed that young people who came out were significantly more likely to report that they had been the target of homophobic behaviors in sport settings.
The second Monash study investigated why some athletes use homophobic language.
“Sports organizations, LGBTQ advocacy groups and government officials typically assume that homophobic behavior is driven by homophobic attitudes in sports,” Denison said. “Over the last two decades, dozens of educational resources, advertising campaigns and initiatives such as the Pride Games have been developed to end homophobia in sports, but these approaches do not seem to be working, because studies consistently find that homophobic language continues to be frequently used by male athletes.”
Roberts said that he heard homophobic remarks on the field, but that he was heartened when, after he had announced that he was gay, the North Queensland Cowboys made him captain.
Kopay said that he “thought coming out would make it easier for other athletes to be open about their sexuality... I hoped to make a difference so others in my position would have the freedom to be who they are.”
“But it was such a painful experience — it was horrible,” Kopay told Monash University. “I sacrificed so much... I couldn’t get a job, couldn’t get a coaching position, no one wanted to hire me.”
Still, Kopay remains bewildered why more gay athletes have not come out.
“I have often been asked if I thought that more gay athletes would come out in sport and I have always said it was just a matter of time,” Kopay said. “We now have gay marriage, but we don’t have any openly gay athletes in the NFL. It makes no sense.”
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