Dee Mosbacher and Fawn Yawker, the producers of the outstanding video documentary, Training Rules, are at it again. They asked if I would post the following on my blog:
The producers of a web campaign and video project in progress - The Last Closet - are searching for a young gay athlete (Jr. High or lower grade High School) who has dreams of becoming a pro. This young man would be “out” to his friends, family and team.
There has never been, in all of US sports history, a gay athlete in any of the top five professional sports, who has come out publicly while they are still actively playing. Our film and web campaign is a quest to find out why this is so and a vehicle to pave the way for this historic event to unfold.
Our young athlete would act as co-interviewer on some of our strategic shoots, including the commissioners of all five sports. We have already secured interviews with some well known players and others in the sports world.
The Last Closet, is being produced by Woman Vision - producer of ten award winning documentaries, including the Academy Award nominated "Straight from the Heart” and most recently the highly acclaimed “Training Rules”.
If you know of anyone fits the description above please contact us at your earliest convenience.
contact:
Fawn Yacker at - TheLastCloset@gmail.com
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8 comments:
Former L.A. Dodger Glen Burke, who was known by many of his teammates to be Gay, should be acknowledged as a Major League Baseball player who was openly Gay. No, he didn't tell it to the world; nor perhaps, announce it with fanfare to his teammates. He lived it, then didn't deny it. How about it? Give the late Glen Burke his proper due.
Of course, there are Media drawbacks, since Glen Burke can't be there. Wouldn't make for much of a show.
If you understand the actual details of Burke's story including his challenges later in life and untimely self induced early demise, I think you'll agree that it is not one the LGBT community really wants to trumpet as a positive example in a public forum.
If film makers Mosbacher and Yawker think for a minute they'll be successful in this effort they are even more self-deluded than the LGBT community normally is. If they somehow find a guy foolish enough to come out while actively participating in pro sports he would be marginalized and be out of the sport so fast your head would spin.
If the entire LGBT community didn't exist in an echo chamber to begin with they would understand that not only are their views exceptionally unpopular and not widely held, but they are becoming even less and less popular as their true strategies start to see the light of day.
The reason they want to accomplish this objective is, to quote Pat to "redefine masculinity". I find it strange and ironic that lesbians are so busy trying to prove that there may be a few gay guys in pro sports but I don't hear them clearly encouraging lesbians to come out in women's pro sports.
Suffice it to say that the straight dudes out there are not quaking in their boots.
Anon, aside from Pat's previous post on Glen Burke, which is itself a kind of acknowledgement, I may have been a subscriber to Sport magazine at the time of the story she refers to in her post. He wasn't a perfect role model and we will never know all the causes of his imperfections. Baseball played its role, almost certainly.
True, it is unlikely Glen Burke will be acknowledged in any positive way anytime soon. As a straight person, I was trying to say, I can see how he might deserve acknowledgement as a pioneer. I doubt it was the "in-thing" to do when Glen Burke did the Sport magazine interview.
Like you said, I'm sure they will find, what they deem to be, a better role model to promote. In today's modern media, Lou Gehrig would have been promoted over Babe Ruth as a more wholesome role model for kids. My comment was tongue-in-cheek, with a certain seriousness attached, for the very reasons you mention.
I think I recall Glen Burke playing well in the 1977 World Series for the Dodgers against the Yankees. If so, it struck me he had an excellent future ahead of him and I was shocked when the Dodgers traded him. For a brief time in the World Series, I was a fan of Glen Burke. I hope you were too.
It took a lot of thinking to remember all this and I'm not certain my memory is accurate. If it is, Glen Burke's life was tragic. Self-destructive or not, I would have wished him a better end as a human being. (In the Sport article, he may have described himself as having lived a self-destructive life; a show of recognition.) Hope you better understand my reasoning now, Anon.
ANON! More from me: Because I found Straight Liberals so opposed to California's Proposition 8, I came to realize, even if it won, which it did, the courts would side with Gays to strike it down, which has happened. I will leave the topic there and move on.
YOUR thinking is unintentionally flawed in my opinion, which I hope to clarify with my words. See all the states that are passing Gay marriage laws as further proof to add to the results of Prop. 8.
Barring a literal Straight vs. Gay war, the questions for both sides has become how to civily accomodate each other. I am looking at three broad areas in coming here: 1.) Is the workplace 2.) Is the socio-cultural life of people 3.) Is the outcomes of and for religious people. I believe I have leaped ahead of where both Straight and Gay people mentally stand at this time.
Many forces will drive strategies of all groups. The place the strategies bring us to, is what I am interested in seeing, in advance, so I will see the right path for me.
If I may give you an example on the third, religion: More than a few Straight Liberals expressed the idea that the Mormon Church, Catholic Church, and other religious groups should have no imput on Prop. 8 in California. "Keep religion in the church" was their view. That dove-tails nicely with the needs of the Gay community on the issue, without having to ask for "anti-religious" support, and I'm sure atheist groups were shouting AMEN to that--pardon the pun. (This event is what led me to examine this Blog, because I realized a major change in America had taken place.)
Leap ahead to what has been said here about Peter Vidmar, his pro-active religious views, and how the Gay community successfully attacked him. Vidmar was not a monolithic church; he was an individual. At this point you can't call what happened to him religious persecution, but the Liberals and Conservatives, who should have been up in arms about attacking a man based on his pro-active religious beliefs, were nowhere to be found.
On one issue you go from monolithic religions being attacked, for being pro-active, to an individual being attacked, for pro-active religious beliefs. That has dangerous implications for religions, and religious people, gradually becoming marginalized, strictly to serve socio-political purposes. Those ideas may be promulgated into law one day!
ANON, you need to leap ahead to protect your own civil rights. Had such ideas prevailed in the Sixties, Martin Luther King could not have led the Civil Rights movement! This is why in the Vidmar case, I posted about the need for the Gay community to take the high road. The desire for a pound of flesh is rarely a healthy vice to have.
Now, am I accusing Gay people of a desire for religious persecution? NO! I am saying, all sides may place all of us, on slippery slopes into dangerous territory we may be unable to retreat from. Different groups often rally around common goals; sometimes with wonderful results, sometimes with regretable results. I am looking for how people can communicate in a rational manner to the betterment of all, without compromising our personal being.
ANON, thanks, if you see this. To others, I hope you understand the issues are large, with words confined to a few.
A personal apology to Pat Griffin for taking up so much space with my thoughts. Trying to post an intelligent comment only reveals the frustrations and limitations of words, to easily express a coherent thought. I will try to remember this, when reading your posts.
Wyman - You make some valid points and certainly your stated objective is honorable. I do think you are missing an important aspect to this discussion. The LGBT crew is and has been figuratively "at war" with straight society for decades. There isn't much point in looking for common ground with them because as a group they aren't interested in anything but pushing their entire lifestyle and agenda upon society starting with the public schools. California is a good case in point.
I lived in Long Beach, CA for many years and just sold and moved out of state a year ago. I was there during the Prop 8 dust up. At least half of the owners in my building were LGBT. I saw them go after people who contributed to Prop 8 and get some of them fired from their jobs for contributing. I saw them walking around on Halloween night in chaps with nothing on underneath them in plain sight of children out trick or treating. I've personally seen the white hot hate many of them, particularly lesbians, have for straight people, particularly men.
The reason they want to go after masculinity via sports & Title IX is to try to validate their steadfast belief that sexuality is socially constructed. This is the foundation of most feminist and LGBT dogma.
The writings of LGBT thought leaders like Daly, Dworkin and Solanas are crystal clear and have been out there for years. Pat is only pitching that dogma through a sports prism. Same stuff, repackaged.
Their frustration is that until they conquer Men's football and basketball their won't have accomplished their mission. They aren't close to that happening and they know it.
I suggest reading any of Daphne Patai's excellent books for more background.
Thank you, ANON. I was hoping you would respond. Needed to better understand your views. Now I do.
It's a shame there is not a greater expression of thoughts and ideas here. That, in itself, speaks volumes. Oh well, I've tried to communicate. Maybe Pat doesn't have the audience I think she does.
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