Back in the Seventies, Glenn Burke played baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland Athletics. Burke was very open about his homosexuality, but the sports media was way too uncomfortable to write anything about him. Later, Burke wrote an autobiography ("Out at Home") which told his tale.
Burke's is a sad story -- homophobia cut short his career and later his life.
As a wise man once said, you can look it up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
How sad ... I think a person's sexual orientation is their right. There is still a lot of homophobia around and I certainly do not understand it. God will judge us all one day ... who are we to stand in judgement of others?
ReplyDeleteoh wow. i didn't know this! sports is such a homophobic field, especially the media surrounding it, it seems.
ReplyDeleteAlways hard to be a minority and always hard to pioneer change.
ReplyDeleteProps to Glenn.
Becky :)
what an interesting fact! sports are indeed seam very homophobic
ReplyDelete"as a wise man once said"
ReplyDeleteHaha that was amazing.
I had never heard of Burke until now - what brave, sad, and interesting story. And yes, agreed: sports are indeed very homophobic.
I saw this on Facebook and showed it to Kyle. What a sad story, I hate that we live in a world that can be so unaccepting. :(
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sara. I hate that the world is so judgmental, makes me really sad the way things are. I'm all for being open and accepting. Thanks for your comment. It always makes me happy when I find another lover of 1950s fashion.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad.... I just don't understand why people care so much. The way I see it is who I sleep with is my business.
ReplyDeletexo
styleontheside.com
I'd never heard of Glenn Burke before so thank you for this post, it was very interesting to learn about him. What a brave man he was, it's sad to read how he was treated and how his life turned out when his career ended. As Pink Cheetah says, it's hard to be a pioneer, hopefully his determination to be true to himself has made things a bit easier for future sports people. xx
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to note that society has to reach a certain point just for the media to report and the public to be aware, even when an individual is brave enough to step up and stand against the prejudice and hate.
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