Deviance-occurs when a person’s ideas, traits, or actions are perceived by others to fall outside their normal range of acceptance in society (Coakley 157). Informal Deviance-violations of unwritten customs and shared understandings that are punished by unofficial sanctions administered by observers or peer (Coakley 157). These two actions are prevalent in sport whether it is from performance enhancing drug use, run-ins with the law, or getting away with things the average person could not because of your fame. One area that is never covered by the media and something that I had never thought of until I ran across this article is an openly gay male athlete.
According to this Sports Illustrated article there is only one in the entire world, out of the thousands of athletes worldwide, there is only one openly gay male athlete; that person is Gareth Thomas. Gareth Thomas is a Welsh rugby footballer in the Welsh Rugby Union as well as for the Welsh National Team. Thomas is one of the greatest rugby players in the history of the Welsh National Team; he has more appearances than any other person, and has been the Captain of the national team and numerous other club teams. These should be the only important facts that fans need to know or think about when it comes to Gareth; however it inevitably his rugby playing career will not be the only thing that is talked about.
This brings to light the issue of conformity in sports, why is it that only one person out of thousands had the courage to come out? It is from the fear that his teammates would abandon him, the fans would no longer cheer for him, and going on the road he would be heckled and threatened beyond belief. This sense of camaraderie and belonging would be gone if even a few teammates refused to play with an openly gay athlete. Because of the fact that male sports are so highly based on power, speed, and violence, the public views that the sports world could only be filled by straight men. I believe that this issue will take a very similar path to that of minorities in sport, it took one person with a tremendous amount of courage like Jackie Robinson to open the way for others to follow. The first couple of athletes brave enough to stand up to prejudice will face hardship and scrutiny, but it will help future generations in acceptance. I predict that in the near future more and more gay athletes will come out to their teammates and fans. Sport has a powerful way of uniting people, and maybe the sports world will help in the acceptance of everyone.
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