LGBTQ+ SPORTS MEMOIR / GAY ADOLESCENCE
Precocious Puberty Ended My Queer Athletic Career — Or Did It?
Once my gayness kicked in, my experience with sports in junior high took a nosedive, then made a surprising comeback
Always the Last Boy Picked
I was never into sports. During grade school, I was always the last boy picked for any team. Everyone in school liked me, but they knew I couldn’t perform on the field, didn’t know the rules, and didn’t care much about any of the games. For example, with baseball, I’d be assigned to somewhere in the backfield, and whenever the ball came right at me, I’d scream and duck and try to get out of the way. They were right not to pick me.
I identified as gay as soon as puberty kicked in. I was drawn only to guys, and I knew it. I also gathered from pop culture that it was “not normal” to be gay and that we were ridiculed and despised. This was in the late 1970s. The earliest “gay character” I remember seeing on TV was a straight character pretending to be gay — John Ritter on Three’s Company — so he could get away with living with two young ladies. At the same time, I would get sexually aroused just looking at John Travolta, Leif Garrett, or Andy Gibb, and I just had to…
