When a straight male sports hero like Chris Kluwe comes blazing out of the gate swinging hard for gay rights, the world sits up, pays attention, and asks its newspapers and magazines to write about him. Even more underrepresented are pro athletes, who are culturally perceived to be in the business of being a straight man. As a straight man, I’ve noticed that my fellow straight men seem to be an underrepresented demographic in the American political arena for gay rights.
The NFL has traditionally not been particularly hospitable to the gay rights movement, possibly because professional sports leagues have always been seen to be bastions of heterosexual masculinity. A gesture of support for gay rights is not itself newsworthy, at least not in this day and age what made this one unusual was the fact that it came from an NFL athlete. Kluwe’s advocacy of gay rights was clearly unusual, otherwise it would not have garnered the public attention that it did.
According to Out, Kluwe’s letter was published on the popular sports website Deadspin and has since gone viral, sparking tremendous controversy and debate in the worlds of sports and politics, as well as in general news outlets. Last October, gay magazine Out ran a spotlight on Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, who had recently written a scathing letter to politician Emmett Burns criticizing him for his anti-gay platform.
