Coming out a 'liberating feeling' for Will Sheridan
Hoops standout: Star coming out would 'change the culture'
Jason Collins’ admission that he is gay was seen as a watershed moment in professional sports. He became the first athlete in the four major pro sports – baseball, men’s basketball, football and hockey – to come out while still active.
But Will Sheridan, the former Sanford hoops star and four-year starter at Villanova who is gay, said the true watershed moment won’t come until a star player comes out.
Collins, 34, is considered a journeyman, having played for six teams during his 12-year NBA career. Collins is a free agent this summer, and there’s no guarantee any team will sign him to a new contract.
“The most impactful thing is that Jason Collins started the conversation,” Sheridan said. “He’s moving it along. I hope it encourages others to come forward. But a star player, at the top of his game, that would change the culture right now.”
Sheridan’s basketball career was over by the time he came out in an ESPN.com article two years ago. He played at Villanova from 2003-07 and was the starting power forward as the Wildcats reached the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight. He also played professionally in Italy for a short time.
Sheridan lives in New York City and is a hip-hop artist performing under the pseudonym G.I.A.N.T. (Going In And Never Timid), often singing about his experiences and his feelings.
His slogan is “Big Enough to Be Who You Are? Then You’re a GIANT, Too.”
That describes Sheridan, 28, and not just because he’s 6-foot-8.
Unlike Collins, who admitted in a first-person article in Sports Illustrated that he was conditioned to “live a lie” during his college and NBA career for fear of being “outed,” Sheridan never tried to hide his sexual orientation while at Villanova.
Sheridan told close friends as early as middle school and high school that he’s gay. He told his roommate at Villanova, teammate Mike Nardi, the first day of his freshman year.
“I had to tell him,” Sheridan said with a laugh. “We were sharing a room.”
Some students from other schools found out, too, when Sheridan was seen at the University of Pennsylvania dating a male law student. He was often was taunted whenever Villanova played at St. Joseph’s or Penn.
The biggest fear Sheridan had about the taunts was for his parents and grandmother sitting in the stands. He told them after his freshman year at Villanova. Sheridan said he still has a strained relationship with his father, although he’s hoping that will change over time.
“I’m a very realistic person,” Sheridan said. “It took me 19 years for me to come out to my parents. I have to give them time to be comfortable with who I am.”
'Sign of weakness'
There are many reasons it’s difficult for a gay athlete to come out publicly, especially for a man in the four major sports. Until Collins, those who did, such as former NBA player John Amaechi, major league baseball player Billy Bean and NFL player David Kopay, waited until they retired.
“For men, it’s perceived that being gay is a sign of weakness,” Sheridan said. “I played in the Big East, going up against some of the toughest players in the nation. I never wanted to be seen as weak.”
It’s been different for female athletes. Former Baylor star Brittney Griner, the first pick in the recent WNBA draft, came out, and that was met with barely a shrug. Many female professional basketball players have come out before her. Tennis stars Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King did so decades ago.
There have been male athletes who have come out in individual sports, such as former Olympic diver Greg Louganis, and a number of figure skaters. That includes former Newark resident Johnny Weir, a two-time Olympian and three-time national champion.
Weir, however, spent several years refusing to address his sexuality, even though it was a frequent topic of speculation, especially after he posed for a magazine cover in women’s clothing.
That changed two years ago. Weir said back then he came out in part because of a string of suicides by young gay men, including a Rutgers student who committed suicide after being unknowingly videotaped with another man.
Weir, who’s hoping to make a comeback and skate in the Olympics next year in Russia, is married to a man.
Weir didn’t return a request to be interviewed, but he told the Chicago Tribune that he can only imagine how tough it must be for a gay man in a team sport.
“There may be guys on a team who don’t like gay people, and that friction could throw an entire team off,” Weir said. “Being out as a gay man isn’t like the common schoolyard rivalries or not liking a teammate. You are sharing a locker room and you are different. The idea a gay guy might hit on you terrifies a lot of straight men.”
That seemed to be the case for San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver in the days leading up to the Super Bowl in February. In a wide-ranging interview on a radio show hosted by shock-jock Artie Lange, Culliver told him that he wouldn’t accept a gay teammate.
“I don’t do the gay guys,” Culliver said. “I don’t do that.”
When asked if there were any gay players on the team, he responded: “We don’t have any gays on the team. They gotta get up outta here if they do. Can’t be with that sweet stuff.”
Culliver apologized for his comments in front of the national media at the Super Bowl the day after.
“I don’t have [any] differences with other sexualities,” he said. “That’s not what I feel in my heart and I treat everyone equal in any type of way. It’s not how I feel.”
Harris an inspiration
Culliver probably has played with at least one gay teammate and never knew it.
Had he been with the 49ers from 2003-07, for example, he would have played with Newark High School graduate Kwame Harris, who didn’t come out until March when he told a reporter at CNN.
Harris was arrested in January after an alleged fight with his former boyfriend.
While not specifically citing Harris, Collins wrote that such a scenario helped inspire him. Collins had never told any of his teammates throughout his college and NBA career. Even his twin brother, Jarron, his teammate at Stanford and a former NBA player, didn’t know.
“The announcement was mine to make, not TMZ’s,” Collins wrote.
Harris told CNN that he didn’t come out during his career because he didn’t see it as “compatible” for an active NFL player, in the sport perceived as the toughest and manliest, to admit he’s gay. Harris didn’t respond to a message seeking comment for this story.
“I love football,” Harris said in the CNN interview. “Football provided me with some experiences and some opportunities that I wouldn’t trade for anything else. But at the same time, the cost was great in asking me to not speak candidly or be able to be open about myself in this complete manner.”
Sheridan said that was his concern as well. He was known as a physical player in the Big East, one of the roughest conferences in college basketball. And he more than held his own. He didn’t want anything to detract from that.
“I didn’t want my legacy to change as a hard-nosed guy who battled every night,” he said. “That was my legacy. I saw myself as being just a guy from Bear, Delaware, who played college basketball on a successful team. “But once I came out, it was a liberating feeling. The G.I.A.N.T. was born.”
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