Homosexuality and Locker Room Ethics

The recent announcement of former NBA player John Amaechi, that he is gay, has sent shockwaves and mixed response from the league. But it also elicited lots of response from the media which was all but one-sided. But in all of the mass hysteria surrounding the coming out of a former NBA star, as detailed in his autobiography, Man in the Middle, the obvious seems to have been overlooked.

Slavic Randolph of the 76ers- "As long as you don't bring your gayness on me I'm fine." This quote was interpreted as a sign of "paranoia" in the NBA that is "inherent" in male professional sports, according to the Times Online.

This following quote by Lebron James was stated as going "even further" to the extreme-

"So that's like the number one thing as team-mates, we all trust each other. You've heard of the in-room, locker room code. What happens in the locker room stays in there. It's a trust factor, honestly. A big trust factor."

So let me get this straight (no pun intended), a secretly-gay man was in the NBA, walking around naked with other men, taking showers, in close physical proximity to other males- for six years? This is like a middle aged trucker, dressed in drag, so he can get into the Laker girls loker room. Yes, homosexuals have access to the intimacies of the NBA loker room, but a heterosexual male has no business in the female realm? Makes perfect sense to me, but maybe I am just "paranoid" of gay men. So what could be the possible excuse?

"It's a frightening prospect. It's terrifying. There are people for whom their entire world is based around this idea that people will look at them and, when they look at them, they are NBA superstars, NBA players. And any change to that would be physiologically devastating. Emotionally devastating, financially devastating."

Emotionally devastating? Terrifying? This man is gay. What could be more devastating than not knowing you have been walking around in the loker room in the presence of gay man, for years? What is truly terrifying is the complete absence of logic. If you are a gay man, why enter into a profession which is inherently masculine and heterosexual? Financially devastating? Mr. Amaechi was making at least ten or twenty times more than the average american worker. Get a real job. Get a job where you don't compromise yourself and the unwitting players around you.

As for the press claiming that the NBA promotes an inherent culture of 'paranoia' against gays, that's like saying women are paranoid of males in the their bathroom. We are a culture that has been gradually introducing novel ideas for what was once considered to be genuinely masculine. This includes women and gays in the military, now in the sports arena, in the name of 'inclusiveness'.

We might as well get rid of all sexual barriers for both sexes, on both sides of the coin (not just on the male side). Heterosexual men have never wanted or asked for political or sexual equality. Even if they did, they would never be granted the right anyhow, since hetero-males are seen as the oppressor.

But liberals, homosexuals and leftists should all ask themselves if surreptitious and covert behavior is the way to inclusion, as Mr. Amaechi did. More importantly, they should ask themselves what it truly means to be equal.