Gay Community Putting Too Much Press On Robbie Rogers To Become Gay Jackie Robinson Of Sports.

Robbie Rogers came out of the closet last month and recently he conducted two interviews with the Guardian and the New York Times. Rogers gave very candid answers he acknowledged that he retired from soccer because he believes he cannot be openly gay and compete. However, on numerous gay websites such as Outsports.com, Queerty, Towleroad, gay men have attacked Rogers calling him a coward. What right do people have to make Robbie Rogers into something he doesn’t want to be? The pressure for a gay male athlete to become the gay Jackie Robinson is a lot of pressure.

How can gay men call Rogers a coward when gay men we know how hard it is to come out? The crabs in the barrel syndrome is so common in the gay community it is disgusting!

Rogers also stated that since he came out no closeted gay male soccer players have emailed him or contacted him he was disappointed. The fear the gay male athletes have in professional sports is very real.

The mainstream media, are very politically correct, everyone is saying the right things, that the time is right for a gay male athlete to come out in a team sport. However, if the time is right why hasn’t anyone done it? Why? Why is it in the year 2013, no professional male athlete has come out in the NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB, golf, tennis, soccer? If society is so progressive as people say why is there still this intense fear that the closeted gay male athletes have?

According to Rogers, he only came out to his family in October 2012. The young man is clearly still struggling to accept his homosexuality. In the New York Times, Rogers says he doesn’t go to gay bars and he doesn’t pick up men. Rogers seems brand new, he is still trying to make sense of his life as an openly gay man. Rogers is also a Catholic, his family is very religious.

The gay community we are our own worst enemy. Some gay people place so much expectations on gay celebrities to be role models to push the gay movement forward. Yet some gay and lesbian people, don’t care to understand some gay stars don’t want to be spokespersons for the movement.

For instance, Jodie Foster the Academy award-winning lesbian actress refuses to be a gay role model and I applaud Foster’s decision. Foster is a very private woman, and she’s living her life on her own terms not for the gay community but for herself. In Robbie Roger’s case, he knows more about the homophobia in professional soccer than the general public. Rogers says the straight male soccer players are hypocritical, on the one hand they claim to support Rogers yet he says they also make gay jokes in the change room.

I think people expect too much from gay celebrities, we place our goals, dreams, and aspirations on these people yet we forget they are people too. Robbie Rogers has done a lot of good just by coming out. If Rogers doesn’t want to compete in professional soccer again it is his personal choice. No one has the right to lecture to Rogers that he must become the gay Jackie Robinson. Rogers is cognizant, he will be subjected to homophobia from fans, and perhaps even other soccer players if he competed again. Rogers feels he can’t handle dealing with gay slurs and negativity when he is competing. Rogers is being honest, he probably doesn’t want to be placed on to a pedestal and have the media put so much scrutiny on him. The pressure to be perfect would be overwhelming.