Really powerful to read all that, thank you.

As I read, I was struck by how different the American experience with soccer is. I’ve lived in Europe, so I have a little bit of personal experience with how the game is viewed on the other side of the pond from me. Here in the States, soccer is seen as almost … “sissified,” given it’s inevitably compared unfavorably to American football in terms of masculinity.

Soccer players here are seen as almost effete. I realize how laughable that is to Brits and Europeans, just saying. It’s such a real phenomenon here, though, that I felt safe playing soccer in school, even as a teen who had an effeminate rep.

I suppose the real problem is that we gay men find ourselves unwelcome in almost all team sports. It’s not like soccer players over here enjoy the reputation they have. It’s a net negative, not a positive, even if it does make some of us gay men more likely to play.

Things won’t really have improved until sexual orientation is considered irrelevant in men’s sports.