On Aug. 11, during a game at Fenway Park, Boston Red Sox star outfielder Jarren Duran turned to a heckler in the crowd mid at-bat and fired back an insult of his own. The broadcast’s crowd mic happened to pick up Duran’s words, and thus the event became one of the biggest stories of the entire season.
In his rebuttal to the fan, Duran used an anti-gay derogatory slur that should never exit anyone’s mouth, let alone a professional athlete who thousands of fans look to as a role model. Duran was suspended for two games without pay and issued an apology, justifiably so. This was not the case in the eyes of a large chunk of MLB fans though. What felt like the majority of fans referred to the punishment as “soft” and called out “wokeness” for censoring Duran. Many fans even went out of their way to support Duran following his public use of the word, with his jersey sales skyrocketing in the days following the incident.
This is just one of many incidents in which minorities, specifically members of the LGBTQ+ community, have been put down and outright spat on by sports fans. As someone who loves sports, and loves everyone regardless of their sexual orientation, it hurts to see the repeated harassment of these people within the sports world. There’s something wrong with the culture, and it needs to change.
Sports are generally not a safe space for queer people, not just at a professional level as fans, but as participants too. According to a study held in 2015 by Out on the Fields, 81% of gay men and 74% of lesbian women who participate in youth sports hide their orientation, likely because of fear of discrimination from fellow players and even coaches and officials. Given how we’ve progressed as a society since 2015, we can probably assume these numbers are a bit lower than they were then, but even a drastically lower 50% clip would still be extremely significant. This is without even mentioning transgender people, who seem to have it the worst nowadays.
It feels as though as our society and general culture has become more accepting and accommodating, the sports world has stayed frozen in the past. When MLB posted their pride graphic this past June, the comment section was overflowing with homophobic remarks with comments such as “what a disgrace” and “let’s give the confused and ill an entire month” racking up hundreds of likes. But the abuse comes in more ways than just verbally. In the aforementioned study, 78% of respondents held the belief that an openly gay person would not be very safe as a spectator at a sporting event. It’s hard to be a fan of something when you have to fear for your safety anytime you participate in that interest.
Sports have a huge presence on social media, including a subculture of LGBTQ+ fans. Casey, an X user who has accumulated over 1,000 followers tweeting about the Texas Rangers, is lesbian. She’s followed sports for her entire life, and feels there are many negative feelings in the baseball community toward LGBTQ+ people, especially when it comes to the local Rangers fans.
“I’ve felt a general sense of hostility toward the community at times, especially in online spaces,” Casey said. “There’s a huge segment of the Rangers’ fanbase that’s very proud of the team being the only one without a pride night.”
Casey is passionate about making sports a safe space for queer fans.
“A lot of people do feel out of place, do feel afraid to present visibly queer at games, and I think it’s unbelievably important to continue to help people feel safe expressing themselves and their pride in that context,” Casey said.
When talking about something like this it’s easy to focus on the negative due to the aforementioned less-than-perfect culture of sports at the moment, but there are still positives nonetheless. Sports generally are extremely valuable, but can especially be a safe space for minorities and marginalized groups such as the LGBTQ+ community when the right people are participating alongside them.
This is even on display at Legacy. Senior Colton Thompson competes in cross country and track. For a while, he hid his orientation from his teammates, out of fear of what they would think of him. He soon realized that the environment around him was an accepting one.
“After knowing what they believe in, I decided that it shouldn’t be a problem for them to know, and it wasn’t a problem,” Thompson said.
That sense of comradery has also been very evident to Casey in her experience.
“Being a sports gay is fun,” Casey said. “It’s a cool feeling to share the bond of being queer and to share a favorite team. It’s a really special level of community.”
Stories like Thompson’s and Casey’s are why it’s so important we do what we can to make sports a safe space for everyone, regardless of their orientation. What can be done to make this happen though?
“To me, visibility is the most important aspect of acceptance. Prejudice and bigotry is based in dehumanization and othering,” Casey said. “If people see that there are gay and trans people in the community who are fans just like them, who are human beings just like them, that’s a big step.”
Treat queer participants as you would anyone else. Remove homophobic language/humor from your vocabulary. Don’t stand-by while your fellow fans harass and drive away those who want to get into your sport because of their orientation. Sports are an amazing thing, and everyone deserves to take part in that experience. Be the change you want to see.
“I would encourage queer people who may have been turned off in the past by sports due to the association with conservative politics or toxic masculinity to give them another shot,” Casey said. “You might be really surprised at the community you find.”
kam • Jan 23, 2025 at 11:11 am
yo this guy knows ball