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Americans are confused about gays in sports, but one expert says the first man out of the closet will be cheered. Plus: Yanks-Sox tempest in a Fenway teapot. And: A fabulous farewell.

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April 15, 2005 | The latest survey about gays in sports finds Americans answering in the usual way, which essentially seems to be, "I wouldn't have a problem with it, but there are plenty of other bigots around who would."

Eighty-six percent of the 979 respondents to the poll by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates said they think it's OK for openly gay male athletes to compete in sports, for example, but 68 percent believe it would hurt an athlete's career to be openly gay. So an overlap of somewhere between 54 and 68 percent, more than half and maybe more than two-thirds of those polled, seems to believe others are less accepting than they are.

There are two ways to look at that: Society is either more accepting than most people think, or most people are less accepting than they let on. As you may know, I believe the former, but if I were a gay male professional athlete contemplating becoming that Jackie Robinson, that first man out of the closet during his career, I can't really take that belief to the bank.

Friday is Jackie Robinson Day in major league ballparks, by the way. Not a bad reason to be thinking about this sort of thing.

You can read the survey questions and responses on Outsports.com. It was commissioned by NBC-Universal, whose USA Network is airing a documentary Wednesday about boxer Emile Griffith that deals with Griffith's possible homosexuality and his 1962 fight with Benny "Kid" Paret. An enraged Griffith knocked out Paret, who had called him "maricón," a Spanish slang word akin to "faggot." Paret died from his injuries.

Looking at the full survey, it's so packed with contradictions, it's pretty clear Americans don't know what they think about homosexuality in sports.

Just one example: 78 percent agree with the statement "It is OK for gay athletes to participate in sports, even if they are open about their sexuality," and 40 percent agree with the statement "It's OK for homosexuals to participate in sports provided they are not open about their sexuality."

Wait a minute. Those two statements are directly contradictory. Only 22 percent said it wasn't OK for gays to participate if they're open about being gay, but 40 percent say it's only OK for gays to participate provided they aren't open. Some people -- at least 18 percent -- agreed with both.

Fortunately for our for-the-moment hypothetical gay Jackie Robinson, it probably doesn't matter what those people think.

"The survey is virtually irrelevant because it's a survey of people's attitudes, not athletes' attitudes," says Eric Anderson, author of "In the Game: Gay Athletes and the Cult of Masculinity." Anderson, who came out while coaching high school track and field in Orange County, Calif., and is now an adjunct sociology professor at SUNY-Stony Brook, says what surveys like this one do is take the pulse of homophobia generally, not so much in sports. And he's optimistic that the pulse is weak.

Next page: The gay Jackie Robinson won't lose sponsorships. Plus: Yanks-Red Sox tiff. And: A fab farewell