Jackie vs. Sheryl

Another reaction to an article I read a few years ago. I have a lot of issues with many so called "opinion' writers these days.

I just read what might possibly be the most inane article I’ve ever read.

In a world where seemingly nothing is taboo anymore (unless you’re into political correctness,) our society has been inundated with homosexuality lately.

Oh, I don’t mean it’s any more prevalent today than it was 20, 30 or even 50 years ago, although that may well be the case. What I mean is that today’s society has made it an open issue, unlike the days of yore, and the media in particular is glorifying the gay lifestyle in some form or another all the way from the neighbor in your favorite sitcom to Barney Frank on Capitol Hill.

And so, along comes Sheryl Swoopes – she of the WNBA superstardom – “coming out of the closet” last week and announcing that she is indeed a lesbian.

Now, aside from the shock, (an informal poll of friends and family asking whether or not they were surprised at said announcement elicited a great big ole “Well, duh!”) one can only be left to ponder, “What’s next?” Most assuredly, there will one day – probably in the not-so-distant-future – come a male athlete in a pro sport who will also make such an announcement while he is still playing the game. Many a male athlete has revealed his sexual preferences after having left the game for some reason or another. But none have as of yet done so while still employed.

Which brings me to the article I read this afternoon. It was posted on the Fox Sports website and written by a guy named Ian O’Connor. I’ve never heard of him, although he is credited as an author of various books. He might be a nice guy, I don’t know.

But he’s an idiot.

Now, before you call me a gay-basher, or hater, or phobe, or whatever else the vernacular calls for today, let me just say that I don’t think he’s an idiot for writing an article that is favorable to gays, which this article is. Nor do I think he’s an idiot for promoting gay-tolerance, which it does. Nor do I think he’s an idiot because, based on his article, his views on the gay lifestyle and my own views on the same differ quite drastically.

No, he’s an idiot because of a certain comparison he makes to help establish his point. Here is what he writes: “The more major sports leagues educate their players on this issue, the more likely it is that a gay athlete will emerge from the closet as eagerly as Jackie Robinson pushed through the Dodgers' clubhouse door. It will be a great day in sports, in all of America, when that male pioneer steps forward the way Robinson did more than 58 years ago, the way Swoopes did last week…”

Did I hear that right? This guy actually compared Sheryl Swoopes telling the world she’s gay to Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball. Actually paired the two events as though they will one day have the same impact on society.

This guy thinks that some guy telling somebody else, even if it is during a news conference, that he likes guys instead of girls is on par with one of the most society-changing events certainly in the past century, and maybe for hundreds of years. That what Jackie Robinson did to break the bonds of racism in this country is akin to the decision on who Ms. Swoopes will actually go to bed with this evening.

Absurd, ludicrous, shocking, moronic, and anything else you want to add.

Let’s clarify a few things first, to give Jackie Robinson his due and save him from the terrible injustice Mr. O’Connor is attempting to heap upon him.

Jackie Robinson was never in a closet about anything. He did not “push through” anything. He was always there, out in the open, proudly black and talented for all the world to see. He wasn’t hiding anything. We were hiding him. It was us who didn’t want him to play. Finally, somebody wised up and Mr. Robinson walked through the door that was opened to him. None of it was his fault.

And suffice it to say that Mr. Robinson did not “eagerly” do anything. Oh, he was bold, and as brave an individual as anyone who ever lived. But had you asked Jackie in those days did he want to be spat upon, insulted, threatened and harmed just so he could swing a bat with a bunch of white guys, he’d have likely said no. Instead, Mr. Robinson was willing to step forward and carry a torch because he knew the significance it would hold. Sure, he wanted to be a big leaguer like every other male at that time, but let’s not forgot that he was already an established Negro league star, making a relatively good living for a black man in those days, playing around guys he knew would never want to harm him. No, Mr. Robinson wasn’t eager, but he was bound by a sense of duty and a cloak of bravery few of us will ever know.

To compare racism in this country to gay-tolerance is like comparing the New Orleans flood to a leaky faucet. They both involve water, but that’s about it. It is a slap in the face to the likes of Mr. Robinson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks. Even Sheryl Swoopes should be offended.

This could digress into a long diatribe about the gay lifestyle, and is it a choice or is one born that way, and so forth. But I don’t want to go there. Suffice it to say that Jackie Robinson didn’t CHOOSE to be black. He was BORN that way, and he couldn’t HIDE it and LIVE A LIE even if he’d wanted to. All Sheryl Swoopes did was tell everybody she gets along better with girls. She coulda been born that way, or she might just have trouble dating men. While that might sound calloused, the truth is that there is no scientific, religious or otherwise practical evidence on which one of those scenarios is the case. But Jackie Robinson was black, and this much is for sure: There wasn’t a darn thing he could do about it.

I think there is something to be said for the fact that there is indeed still such an intolerance for homosexuality in our society. Despite the media’s attempts to portray it otherwise, the gay lifestyle is very dark, brooding and racked with pain and suffering. If it weren’t, there would be no reason to hide it. Then again, maybe if so many homosexuals didn’t hide it so much, while most people may still not accept it, at least they might understand it better. Nevertheless, it is something that, like it or not, is still not normal in our society for a variety of reasons. We can be as tolerant as we want. If the hedonism of the late 70’s, 80’s and 90’s didn’t change society’s view, it ain’t gonna happen now anytime soon. In today’s no-holds-barred world, if a guy wants to sleep with another guy and then doesn’t have the guts to tell other people about it, that’s his problem. I’ve got no problem if people know I actually make love to my wife every now and then.

Which is to say that I don’t care if people are gay or not, in a casual sense, even though my religious beliefs dictate otherwise. As it is, I have no authority to tell people how they can or can’t live their lives. But I hope I have the sense God at least gave a duck. Somewhere along the line, Mr O’Connor apparently went nuts and thought that somebody’s sexual choice actually holds the same importance as equality among the races. That racial hatred and bigotry is no worse and no more significant than “Your bathhouse or mine?”
I can at least spot an idiot when I read one.