Yes, it's a punny title. I am making this post purely to add my voice to that of Carrie Dunn @ The F-Word Blog, offering congratulations and support to England wicketkeeper Steven Davies who is now the first out gay England cricketer.
Sport is one of the traditionally masculine activities and an area in which performing masculinity has a very high importance because a big part of proving one's masculinity is to express contempt or hatred for things seen as effeminate (such as homosexuality). For any sportsman to come out as gay while still in his prime is a big risk and if we want a world in which homosexuality is more accepted and treated as normal then recognising these first pioneers and not treating them any differently, while still recognising their courage, is very important.
I am worried lest this become a case of "look at this really unusual specimen we've discovered, we must be careful to preserve it!" thus still serving to exoticise Mr Davies' sexuality and his act. The key thing is that us knowing his sexuality won't change the way he plays and does his job and I think we should take care not to treat this as something special, what we need to see as special is only the amount of courage in breaking with the social norms to say this.
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