ABSTRACT
Central to the emergence of inclusive masculinities is the trend of declining cultural homohysteria, which is facilitated by declining homophobia. Accordingly, if inclusive masculinities exist within competitive teamsports, we should expect to see the lived experiences of gay athletes improve. In this chapter, I fi rst outline the fi ndings of my 1999-2004 research on openly gay high school and collegiate athletes. Here, I show a signifi cant variance between what researchers once theorized what would happen to gay athletes in sport, and what their experience actually is after coming out. It highlights the use of individual agency in contesting and reshaping organizational attitudes toward homosexuality.
