ABSTRACT
What do we know – at this point in time – about the experience of same-sex attraction and desire for young males in sport and physical education settings? What does the existing literature tell us about the characteristics of this particular avenue of human experience? Invisibility is one possible characteristic: 10,708 competitors from 204 countries took part in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Among all these competitors there was only one openly gay male (Buzinski 2008). Concealment might be another: according to Anderson (2005: 43), sport can be ‘a safe space for those desiring to deeply conceal their same-sex desires. Athletes (particularly in team sports) are shrouded in a cloud of heterosexual assumption, while simultaneously engaging in a highly charged, homoerotic environment.’ Isolation as a result of perpetuated myths could be a third characteristic: ‘It was all such a cruel joke. I recognized guys from the wrestling team, from track, from all over school,’ write Amaechi and Bull (2007: 113), ‘to acknowledge one another and our minority status threatened doom – unless there was some way we could coordinate our message. And that’s exactly what discrimination prevented.’ Within a culture characterized by (near) invisibility, concealment and isolation, what can we hope to know? And, perhaps more to the point, how can we know? Who will do the telling, the showing, the sharing?
