Gay Cardinals pitcher quit when players said gays should be killed
Over the past few years, Major League Baseball has worked to improve its relationship with the LGBT community. The league has spoken out against LGBT bullying, hired former major leaguer Billy Bean as its Ambassador for Inclusion and vowed to work more closely with LGBT-owned businesses.
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While those are all solid steps, eliminating hateful speech within locker rooms might remain baseball’s biggest obstacle on this front. That remains a work in progress.
Last season, gay minor-league pitcher Tyler Dunnington stepped away from baseball after dealing with hateful speech from teammates and coaches. In an email to Cyd Zeigler of Outsports, Dunnington detailed why he felt he needed to leave the game he loved.
I was also one of the unfortunate closeted gay athletes who experienced years of homophobia in the sport I loved. I was able to take most of it with a grain of salt but towards the end of my career I could tell it was affecting my relationships with people, my performance, and my overall happiness.
I experienced both coaches and players make remarks on killing gay people during my time in baseball, and each comment felt like a knife to my heart. I was miserable in a sport that used to give me life, and ultimately I decided I needed to hang up my cleats for my own sanity.
After a little over a year of being gone from the game I’ve come to realize I thought I was choosing happiness over being miserable. That is not necessarily the case. My passion still lies in baseball, and removing myself from the game didn’t change that. Most of the greatest memories I have are with this sport. After gaining acceptance from my friends and family I realized I didn’t have to quit baseball to find happiness.
Dunnington was not out to his teammates when he played, and that led to some awkward, and awful, exchanges among teammates. The worst of which came from a coach who said “we kill gay people in Wyoming” in reference to 21-year-old Matthew Sherpard, who was brutally murdered in 1998 because he was gay.
Teammates also engaged in anti-LGBT talk. After finding out one teammate had a gay brother, some of the club questioned how that teammate could remain close with his sibling. They also “mentioned ways to kill gay people,” according to Outsports.
Dunnington has come out now, and looking to return to the game after a year away. His playing career may be over, but Dunnington is hoping to join a team’s front office.
While he’ll still likely have to deal with hateful speech, Dunnington indicated that the game is changing. Last June, a number of major-league players told Eno Sarris of FanGraphs that they believed baseball would embrace an openly gay player.
That hasn’t happened yet. And based on Dunnington’s experience, more work needs to be done by the league, particularly among players and in locker rooms.
Completely eliminating that sentiment from the game may be impossible. But no person should have to go through what Dunnington experienced.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
