ABSTRACT
Athleticism was spoken about, and performed, as a marker of hyper masculinity and physical prowess. The pursuit for the first gay and out (male) athlete functioned as a neoliberal move to brand, and profit off, the longstanding and invisibilized struggles of those marginalized because of their deviant sexual desires. To be born queer and trans into a society that privileges, values, respects, and sometimes keeps the cisgender heterosexual young people safe, is to enter in a space that can be so antagonistically hegemonic, so dangerously soul-demolishing, so harmful to young queer and trans people. Black folk are no more antagonistic than any other group. LGBTQ youth face serious biases from individuals and institutions. Men and women athletes are not regarded as equals. A critical examination of sports salaries is one way to observe this inequality; sports media coverage is another. Men athletes dominate the primetime sports television shows, radio airwaves, print media, and online space.
