As NFL’er Launches LGBTQ-Friendly Youth Camp, There's an Urgent Need For (Way) More Allyship in Men’s Sports
Spencer Macnaughton | Uncloseted Media Weekly Newsletter
On March 27, NFL defensive tackle Khalen Saunders announced that he’d welcome LGBTQ youth to his football camp this summer.
"Being in the NFL is very male-dominant and heterosexual dominant and it feels as though there's not really a space for the LGBTQ community," Saunders told the NFL network. "Being an ally is more than just saying ‘I support.’ … It's also showing up."
Of the roughly 3,600 players currently competing in the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA, zero of them are openly gay or bisexual. Literally none!
While this number is likely astounding for many, it doesn’t surprise me.
In middle school, I was pretty damn good at tennis and basketball and had to choose which one to take more seriously.
I chose tennis for various reasons that had nothing to do with being a closeted tween. But the decision was made in part because of the fear of having to deal with the homophobia in locker rooms, with the homoerotic culture that was “so funny” until it became “actually gay” and with the lack of coaches and teammates in the basketball arena who created a climate that made me feel confident being out on the court.
So I went all in on tennis and was eventually ranked in the top five in Ontario, Canada, for Boys Under 18 singles. After coming out at 16, I appreciated that there were no locker rooms, that you trained with girls (which undoubtedly contributed to less bro culture and less misogyny) and that I was lucky to have coaches and people I trained with who were decent and who I could just tell were allies (thank you Toronto Tennis Academy and Davisville Tennis Club!).
I took my SATs, and my parents hired an agency to help market me to U.S. teams with dreams of playing in the NCAA. I remember being offered a scholarship to a college in Tennessee and having a phone call with the coach. I told her I was gay and wanted to make sure she and her team were okay with that.
What followed was an awkward pause where I thought the call had dropped. “Oh,” she said in a Parker Posey in White Lotus Southern drawl. “We don’t have much of that here.”
I wound up staying in Canada and playing for McGill University’s team for a year before dropping it to party and study for the rest of my undergrad.
I think about all the young boys in America being pushed away from sports or disincentivized to compete because of the lack of representation. Because of the fear of homophobia and getting bullied in the locker room. Because of all the little, insidious things straight players never have to think about that dissuade gay kids from trying out for the school football team or registering for hockey camp.
With nearly 30% of Gen Z adults identifying as LGBTQ, think about the talent pool being wasted because professional leagues aren’t creating a climate where gay boys feel safe to play.
I’m so tired of hearing that we need to do better. What we need is more allies—particularly straight guys like Khalen Saunders—showing up for the LGBTQ community. Like way more.
In addition, the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB need to have a bigger, systematic conversation about why—in 2025—they have zero gay and bi players. Until this happens, the talent drain and missed opportunities in men’s pro sports will continue to be innumerable.
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Over the next week, be on the lookout for new Uncloseted reporting:
🆕 On Saturday, we’ll publish a panel where I interview five transgender Iowans. We wanted to hear from this group because Iowa recently became the first state to remove gender identity protections from its civil rights law. As a result, transgender and nonbinary Iowans are no longer legally protected from gender-based discrimination.
🆕 This Tuesday, we take a deep dive into Elon Musk’s track record on LGBTQ issues. Spoiler: It’s not great.
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Spencer Macnaughton, Editor-In-Chief — spencer@unclosetedmedia.com
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