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Slate: Bookish gay kids viciously outed by junior high gym requirements

https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/05/gay-kids-and-sports-how
Fishy Azn Hunting Ground
  05/25/18
Every once in a while, as I walk my dog through the park, I’...
Fishy Azn Hunting Ground
  05/25/18
Why didn't he just practice a little and get better at sport...
spruce home
  05/25/18
...
Turquoise plaza
  05/25/18
You need some guidance--how to get better. If your spazzy a...
Motley Brindle Parlour Philosopher-king
  05/25/18
Cr what he needs is a couple years of ballet
drab odious community account
  05/25/18
Remember: homosexuality is *not* a mental illness Never ...
Fuchsia soul-stirring crackhouse pocket flask
  05/25/18
Come on xo, that was pretty funny.
angry beta resort
  05/25/18
agreed he was funny but also revealing. As much as he hates ...
Fishy Azn Hunting Ground
  05/25/18
So this was not written by Michael Sam. Also this line: ...
Pearl Black Woman Area
  05/25/18
I'm sure he never had impure thoughts about these boys' cock...
talented address incel
  05/25/18
Totally not, neither did I, haha, hahaha
Pearl Black Woman Area
  05/25/18
...
Ruby curious queen of the night nibblets
  05/26/18
(not aaron rodgers)
drab odious community account
  05/25/18
...
talented address incel
  05/25/18
...
Swashbuckling Old Irish Cottage
  05/25/18
can't believe i read more than a line of this drivel
vibrant geriatric filthpig
  05/25/18
me too and I can't believe I kept jacking off while reading
talented address incel
  05/25/18
...
vibrant geriatric filthpig
  05/25/18
"I stood by myself in a corner, silent and aghast, as t...
Zombie-like insecure idiot
  05/25/18
sharklasers outted
drab odious community account
  05/25/18
...
Underhanded nowag
  05/25/18
...
vibrant geriatric filthpig
  05/25/18
...
Provocative fiercely-loyal windowlicker chad
  05/25/18
...
supple scarlet famous landscape painting heaven
  05/25/18
...
Indecent Affirmative Action
  05/26/18
imagine being a JACKED AS FUCK gay man from Ancient Greece, ...
red locus
  05/25/18
...
Swashbuckling Old Irish Cottage
  05/25/18
...
zippy diverse cuckold mental disorder
  05/25/18
gay?
spruce home
  05/25/18
...
Up-to-no-good erotic tanning salon
  05/25/18
...
ebony dopamine
  05/26/18
...
Harsh locale giraffe
  05/25/18
...
Swashbuckling Old Irish Cottage
  05/25/18
1. >> This sex segregation marooned me from my friends...
cerise drunken kitchen
  05/25/18
do ppl really have gym every single day?
Henna box office
  05/25/18
(nerd)
white swollen really tough guy
  05/25/18
They did back in the day before everyone became an obese fag...
sepia pit
  05/26/18
wait, they don't have PE every day anymore?
infuriating arousing menage
  05/26/18
Expected someone fatter https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_ima...
painfully honest titillating indian lodge
  05/25/18
Conversely, I thought he would be scrawnier. If he were a f...
brilliant principal's office hairy legs
  05/25/18
"I hit gold with my eighth-grade coach, a gruff but kin...
mewling greedy pistol messiness
  05/25/18
LOL I’m sure there’s nothing else going on there
drab odious community account
  05/25/18
That’s known as “grooming”
sepia pit
  05/26/18
*crowbars jejune into prose*
Bisexual Hell
  05/26/18
...
Crimson laser beams
  05/26/18
American fags drive me insane. My hockey league gets DEMOLIS...
Indecent Affirmative Action
  05/26/18
all those limp wristed wrist shots lol
cocky circlehead prole
  05/26/18
You jest, but these guys are certified musclestuds. played a...
Indecent Affirmative Action
  05/26/18
...
cocky circlehead prole
  05/26/18
you suggested this i take it?
cocky circlehead prole
  05/26/18
Let's just say I was playing switch hitter that day
Indecent Affirmative Action
  05/26/18
Worked harder than you
coiffed floppy coldplay fan keepsake machete
  05/26/18
Gonna need a walkthrough of that one, hoss.
Indecent Affirmative Action
  05/26/18
Probably why he went to harvard and you sweated out tufts
coiffed floppy coldplay fan keepsake machete
  05/26/18
In a healthy Russian ruled society he would be taken out bac...
razzle house
  05/26/18
next in this hard-hitting series: junior high gym requiremen...
Alcoholic dun dilemma wagecucks
  05/26/18
conversely gay chicks were soccer studs
cyan deep corner preventive strike
  05/26/18


Poast new message in this thread



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:14 PM
Author: Fishy Azn Hunting Ground
Subject: https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/05/gay-kids-and-sports-how

I do not remember the moment I realized I was gay, but I do remember the moment I realized I wasn’t going to be able to hide it anymore. The boys of my sixth-grade class had been forced into the scalding north Florida sun for PE and instructed to play baseball. Our coach selected two team captains, who then chose members of their phalanx one by one. As always, I was picked last. I trudged toward the outfield and prayed that nobody hit any balls in my direction—so of course, within minutes, some kid smacked the baseball as hard as he could directly at my position. I stared at it, eyes stung by the sun, as it hurtled toward me through the air. I threw my hands up in terror but failed to block the projectile, which bonked me, hard, on the head.

The good news was that I could now plausibly allege an injury that would dismiss me from PE for the week. The bad news was that I had provided clinching evidence in the mounting case against my weakly feigned heterosexuality. I was bad at sports, which proved to my peers that I was homosexual. At this time and place, that stereotype was accepted as a law of nature. Can’t catch a baseball? Must be into dudes. Most straight adults I know, even the decidedly unathletic ones, have fond memories of youthful hours spent bonding with their beloved teammates. But for bookish gay boys like me, sports were nothing less than a crucible that laid bare the secret we’d strived so pathetically hard to obscure.

It certainly did help that I became aware of both my sexuality and my complete inability to compete in physical activities at roughly the same time. Until middle school, my experience of “physical education” was relatively benign: A middle-aged teacher would take all the boys and girls out to the playground and instruct us to run around or jump rope or whatever. I was not good at running around or jumping rope, but it didn’t matter, as no one cared; the stakes were infinitesimal, and I could get an A-plus so long as I behaved. It wasn’t until sixth grade that PE developed into something more sinister—because suddenly, the boys and girls were segregated into different groups, as though we were wee Olympic trainees.

This sex segregation marooned me from my friends, all of whom were girls, since I found my male peers frightening and mystifying. It also compounded the toxic masculinity and homophobia that were probably innate to any gaggle of male American tweens during the first term of the George W. Bush administration.* As we changed into our “gym clothes” in a cramped locker room, the boys filled the air with Axe and misogyny, crudely objectifying our female classmates like horny little psychopaths. I stood by myself in a corner, silent and aghast, as the boys slandered the girls with whom I played Mancala and made friendship bracelets during lunch.

And now we had to play actual sports every goddamn day: baseball and basketball and flag football and soccer and all variety of games whose rules all the other boys just seemed to know, but that bewildered me. I didn’t mind coming in last every time we ran “the mile” because I had only failed myself. But team sports were brutal because my teammates needed me to do things that we all knew I could not do. They had a primal urge to win these idiotic games—some of them truly had nothing else going for them—and I was an impediment to that achievement. I couldn’t simply fade into the background; my inadequacy actively thwarted their testosterone-fueled ambitions.

Eventually I adopted various methods of avoiding this ignominy. Under an explicit and binding agreement with my parents, all dentist, doctor, and orthodontist appointments were scheduled during the PE hour. A CVS wrist brace I got for a minor sprain was squirreled away in my gym bag for emergencies: I’d slip it on whenever it seemed the dread “shirts and skins” might be employed. And I discovered each coach’s conversational weak spot, coaxing out of these terse, bored men (they were all men) any material I could work with. I hit gold with my eighth-grade coach, a gruff but kindhearted older man with libertarian leanings and a jejune interest in politics. For days on end we chattered about Ross Perot in the corner of the field as my classmates played another mindless round of whatever ball.

What especially frustrated me was that I felt I was fulfilling a stereotype that I deeply wished to buck. By that point, I had more or less made peace with my sexuality, but I had decided, like so many tortured 13-year-olds before me, that I wouldn’t be that kind of gay—the wimp, the pansy, the limp-wristed mincer who betrayed his own sex. Yes, I tried to convey a stereotypically masculine presence to conceal the fact that I holed up in my room every night rewatching covertly recorded VHS tapes of Will & Grace. But I also wanted to demonstrate that if I was gay, I wasn’t a Jack; I was, at worst, a Will, neurotic but recognizable as a man.

All this gender trouble was made more irritating by the asymmetry of my plight. The tomboys and butch girls in my class might occasionally be mocked for a perceived lack of femininity, but they kicked ass in PE. Why, I wondered, did lesbians get to be great at sports, while gay boys feebly flailed about? These are both stereotypes, sure, but many lesbians I know today had distinguished sporting careers as teenagers, and most gay men still recoil at the offer of a pickup basketball game. In fact, I view any such invitation to be a heterosexist microaggression, thank you very much.

In high school, I finally freed myself from the snare of PE, quickly developing a self-confidence that could not have flourished under its daily embarrassments. These days I remain only slightly traumatized by my involuntary exposure to sports that I emphatically could not play. Every once in a while, as I walk my dog through the park, I’ll see a soccer ball roll past me; on the other side of a fence, a kid entreats me to throw it back. I ignore her, as I cannot throw anything. But those little encounters no longer have any effect on my psyche.

More importantly, the stereotype that I embody has been largely jettisoned by American culture, and rightly so. In the age of famous gay Olympians, it feels oddly quaint to discuss my adolescent tales of sporting woe in tandem with my sexual development. The two are not really related, and it seems preposterous in 2018 to assert that my sexual orientation somehow hindered my abilities on the field. I am not bad at sports because I am gay; I just had the misfortune of comporting with a dumb stereotype. If that hastened my coming out, then I am grateful for it. If it didn’t, at least I learned early that when it comes to defining your own sexuality, there’s no actual requirement that you play by everyone else’s rules.

Correction, May 24, 2018: This piece originally mistakenly referred to the George H.W. Bush administration.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126409)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:15 PM
Author: Fishy Azn Hunting Ground

Every once in a while, as I walk my dog through the park, I’ll see a soccer ball roll past me; on the other side of a fence, a kid entreats me to throw it back. I ignore her, as I cannot throw anything.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126411)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:16 PM
Author: spruce home

Why didn't he just practice a little and get better at sports, just like with any other school subject?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126425)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:31 PM
Author: Turquoise plaza



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126525)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 3:15 PM
Author: Motley Brindle Parlour Philosopher-king

You need some guidance--how to get better. If your spazzy and uncoordinated, taking basketball shots for 45 minutes isn't going to make you any better if you don't have enough body awareness to intuit what you are doing wrong.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36127241)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 3:26 PM
Author: drab odious community account

Cr what he needs is a couple years of ballet

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36127323)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:19 PM
Author: Fuchsia soul-stirring crackhouse pocket flask

Remember: homosexuality is *not* a mental illness

Never forget it citizens

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126452)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:26 PM
Author: angry beta resort

Come on xo, that was pretty funny.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126497)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:56 PM
Author: Fishy Azn Hunting Ground

agreed he was funny but also revealing. As much as he hates to admit it stereotypes exist for a reason.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126731)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:34 PM
Author: Pearl Black Woman Area

So this was not written by Michael Sam.

Also this line:

"As we changed into our “gym clothes” in a cramped locker room, the boys filled the air with Axe and misogyny, crudely objectifying our female classmates like horny little psychopaths."

ljlll

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126540)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:35 PM
Author: talented address incel

I'm sure he never had impure thoughts about these boys' cocks in his ass, no sirree

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126550)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:46 PM
Author: Pearl Black Woman Area

Totally not, neither did I, haha, hahaha

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126648)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 4:54 AM
Author: Ruby curious queen of the night nibblets



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36130470)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:39 PM
Author: drab odious community account

(not aaron rodgers)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126583)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:40 PM
Author: talented address incel



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126595)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:46 PM
Author: Swashbuckling Old Irish Cottage



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126640)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:41 PM
Author: vibrant geriatric filthpig

can't believe i read more than a line of this drivel

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126602)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:42 PM
Author: talented address incel

me too and I can't believe I kept jacking off while reading

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126606)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:49 PM
Author: vibrant geriatric filthpig



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126676)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:42 PM
Author: Zombie-like insecure idiot

"I stood by myself in a corner, silent and aghast, as the boys slandered the girls with whom I played Mancala and made friendship bracelets during lunch."

jfc

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126609)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:43 PM
Author: drab odious community account

sharklasers outted

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126612)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:46 PM
Author: Underhanded nowag



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126643)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:49 PM
Author: vibrant geriatric filthpig



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126677)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 2:56 PM
Author: Provocative fiercely-loyal windowlicker chad



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36127132)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 3:02 PM
Author: supple scarlet famous landscape painting heaven



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36127174)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 3:28 AM
Author: Indecent Affirmative Action



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36130406)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:43 PM
Author: red locus

imagine being a JACKED AS FUCK gay man from Ancient Greece, perhaps a member of the Sacred Band, the 100% gay elite infantry unit that was considered the best in Greece...and reading this

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126618)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:51 PM
Author: Swashbuckling Old Irish Cottage



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126693)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 2:04 PM
Author: zippy diverse cuckold mental disorder



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126778)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 2:08 PM
Author: spruce home

gay?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126808)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 3:30 PM
Author: Up-to-no-good erotic tanning salon



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36127349)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 5:07 AM
Author: ebony dopamine



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36130479)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:49 PM
Author: Harsh locale giraffe



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126669)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:52 PM
Author: Swashbuckling Old Irish Cottage



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126694)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 1:53 PM
Author: cerise drunken kitchen

1. >> This sex segregation marooned me from my friends, all of whom were girls, since I found my male peers frightening and mystifying.>>

Perhaps part of the point is to confront things that are uncomfortable and learn from people we find different, right libs?

2. Why should he whine about this anymore than a kid who struggled in math would whine about that?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36126702)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 3:16 PM
Author: Henna box office

do ppl really have gym every single day?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36127251)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 3:33 PM
Author: white swollen really tough guy

(nerd)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36127367)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 2:25 AM
Author: sepia pit

They did back in the day before everyone became an obese faggot

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36130334)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 1:13 PM
Author: infuriating arousing menage

wait, they don't have PE every day anymore?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36131615)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 3:25 PM
Author: painfully honest titillating indian lodge

Expected someone fatter

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/956180044996628485/5yzPQjvB_400x400.jpg

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36127318)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 3:38 PM
Author: brilliant principal's office hairy legs

Conversely, I thought he would be scrawnier. If he were a fatty they would have bullied him mercilessly and he would have mentioned it repeatedly.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36127383)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 3:32 PM
Author: mewling greedy pistol messiness

"I hit gold with my eighth-grade coach, a gruff but kindhearted older man with libertarian leanings and a jejune interest in politics. For days on end we chattered about Ross Perot in the corner of the field as my classmates played another mindless round of whatever ball."



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36127365)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 25th, 2018 3:33 PM
Author: drab odious community account

LOL I’m sure there’s nothing else going on there

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36127368)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 2:26 AM
Author: sepia pit

That’s known as “grooming”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36130338)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 8:19 AM
Author: Bisexual Hell

*crowbars jejune into prose*

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36130637)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 8:35 AM
Author: Crimson laser beams



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36130672)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 3:30 AM
Author: Indecent Affirmative Action

American fags drive me insane. My hockey league gets DEMOLISHED bi-monthly by the fucking gay hockey mafia in our city and this Jacksonville queer can't catch a baseball? We need a homocaust.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36130408)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 3:32 AM
Author: cocky circlehead prole

all those limp wristed wrist shots lol

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36130412)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 3:41 AM
Author: Indecent Affirmative Action

You jest, but these guys are certified musclestuds. played a game in just jock straps and helmets once.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36130418)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 4:09 AM
Author: cocky circlehead prole



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36130442)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 5:01 AM
Author: cocky circlehead prole

you suggested this i take it?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36130473)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 6:03 AM
Author: Indecent Affirmative Action

Let's just say I was playing switch hitter that day

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36130511)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 4:52 AM
Author: coiffed floppy coldplay fan keepsake machete

Worked harder than you

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36130469)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 4:54 AM
Author: Indecent Affirmative Action

Gonna need a walkthrough of that one, hoss.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36130471)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 4:49 AM
Author: coiffed floppy coldplay fan keepsake machete

Probably why he went to harvard and you sweated out tufts

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36130468)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 8:41 AM
Author: razzle house

In a healthy Russian ruled society he would be taken out back and shot. Right and proper.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36130677)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 1:17 PM
Author: Alcoholic dun dilemma wagecucks

next in this hard-hitting series: junior high gym requirements are antisemitic

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36131633)



Reply Favorite

Date: May 26th, 2018 1:25 PM
Author: cyan deep corner preventive strike

conversely gay chicks were soccer studs

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3986372&forum_id=2#36131664)