Welcome to the Gayborhood

This weekend featured two high profile people coming out as openly gay.

Don Lemon

One of them was Don Lemon, a newsman who works for CNN. I believe that the significance of this is that there are precious few role models for young gay men who are also African-American. The fact of the matter is that homophobia, as much as it is a problem in the general population, it is a far larger problem in the Black community. Don Lemon now being open about his sexuality can stand as someone young gay men of colour can look up to and know that they can still lead successful lives regardless of their sexual orientation. The subject of his sexuality came up as a result of a book about his career called "Transparent."

Side note: Currently, there are only two other openly gay people on broadcast news: Thomas Roberts and Rachel Maddow, both of MSNBC.

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Rick Welts

The other person to come out was Rick Welts of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Though he is not a player, this is a man who has been involved in the sport for some 40 years from being a ball-boy to his current position as President of the Phoenix Suns. He is pretty much the first (if not THE first) active executive/player/coach in the NBA or any other of the "Big Four" here in the States - the others being the NHL, NFL, and MLB - to be openly gay. Welts is now in a position to break the all-too-long held stereotype that being a gay an precludes being able to be involved with sports directly or otherwise. The article about him in the NYTimes is a must read.

This is the latest move in a period of a month or two where the issues of homosexuality and sports figures have intersected on a large scale, from this back to Kobe Bryant's homophobic slur just before the playoffs.