Inside, Looking Out: Why are there no openly gay men in professional tennis?

The beauty of organized sports is that they teach us so many lessons about life. All the values and virtues we learn on the court or the field -- patience, persistence, self-belief, and even grace in defeat -- can all be carried over and applied to everyday life. And just as sports can be a microcosm for real life, the history of sports in this country mirrors society's changing norms when it comes to things like inclusion, equality and acceptance. There was a time when racial segregation was the law of the land, and baseball’s segregated leagues were just accepted as the way things were. When the slow but steady dismantling of legal segregation began after World War II, Major League baseball followed suit and began integrating the sport. In the 1970s, the burgeoning women’s rights movement helped to expand Title IX -- a civil rights law that deals with federally funded educational programs -- to include equal funding for women’s athletics. The same spirit of equality that advanced Title IX undoubtedly inspired Billie Jean King and her fellow players to form the WTA with the goal of equal pay (and respect) for female professional tennis players.

To be clear, the history of tennis in the U.S. is probably one of the most notorious when it comes to exclusion and inequality. For much of its history, tennis was an elitist sport played by rich white people at restricted country clubs, and female professionals earned only a fraction of their male counterparts. But tennis has come a long way. Legends like Arthur Ashe and the Williams sisters started important conversations about racism and access to tennis, and inspired future generations of non-white players to get involved in the sport. Thanks to the efforts of Billie Jean King and many others in the WTA, female professionals now receive equal pay and equal billing with ATP players.

There is one aspect of professional tennis, however, that seems to be behind the curve relative to societal changes and even relative to other sports: the complete absence of out, gay male players. In a time of sweeping social change that includes marriage equality in the U.S and 25 other countries, ever-improving societal attitudes towards LGBTQ people, and more and more public figures (including athletes) being open about their sexuality, it’s puzzling to me why there has never been a single active player on the ATP to open up about being gay.

On the surface, professional tennis today appears to have a progressive, inclusive attitude towards gays. Margaret Court, a legend of the game who went on to become a Christian pentecostal minister and outspoken anti-LGBTQ figure, has been almost universally dismissed as a bigot whose views do not represent the values of tennis or modern society. When ATP player Sergiy Stakhovsky denied the possibility that there could be any gay men in the ATP top 100 (along with some other offensive comments about lesbians in tennis), former player and Athlete Ally ambassador James Blake responded by saying “Stakhovsky is kidding himself if he believes there are no gay tennis players in the (men's) top 100. I hope that if any players inside or outside the top 100 decide to come out, they will be welcomed and supported." But looking beyond the official statements and well-meaning gestures of support, the puzzle of why gay men in tennis can’t or won’t come out is a lot more complex than it may seem.

Part of the issue with homosexuality in men’s tennis may stem from the fact that it's an international sport. While the U.S., Canada, and countries in Western Europe may be socially liberal and offer legal protections and rights to LGBTQ people, the majority of players come from parts of the world where being gay is, at best, frowned upon and, at worst, treated as a crime. According to Cyd Zeigler, the co-founder of Outsports and author of Fair Play, players’ decisions to remain quiet about their sexuality may have less to do with the culture of tennis itself, and a whole lot to do with the culture they grew up in. “Look at the men’s top 100,” says Zeigler, “how many are from countries that truly embrace homosexuality; where it’s truly not an issue?”

So if we accept that tennis players from all over the world are influenced by the values of their home countries, how do we explain the discrepancy between the men’s and women’s tours in terms of out players? While the ATP currently has zero openly gay players, the WTA currently has a number of out players like Casey Dellacqua and Alison van Uytvanck who have publicly acknowledged their identities and relationships with no significant backlash or impact on their careers. Cyd Zeigler believes this has a lot to do with the generation of players that came before this one: “Thirty-eight years ago, two of the greatest female players of all time were outed. Billie-Jean King was outed, and Martina Navratilova was forced out before she was entirely ready. And then it wasn’t until 18 or 20 years later that another woman [Amelie Mauresmo] came out very quietly. Now, if it had been two male legends who were forced out of the closet in the 80s, things might be very different on the men’s tour.” In other words, King and Navratilova may not have come out on their own terms, but they ended up serving as role models for future female players; those types of roles models simply don’t exist in the men’s game. Adding to the discrepancy, adds Zeigler, is an unfair double standard: “Western culture’s acceptance of lesbians is simply farther ahead than its acceptance of gay men.”

When I think about different men’s sports and how their individual cultures might influence gay players’ decisions to be open about their sexuality, team sports would seem to fall to the bottom of the list. Locker-room culture can at times be toxically macho, with straight men trying to affirm their masculinity with sexually degrading talk about women and off-color jokes about gays, all in an effort to bond with, and get approval from, their teammates. Surprisingly, though, the handful of American professional athletes who have come out (or were already out before being recruited) all played team sports: Michael Sam (NFL), Jason Collins (NBA) and Robbie Rogers (professional soccer.) The reality is that, while there are no teammates to impress in tennis, there may still be a more subtle, heterosexist locker-room culture, where candid interactions may be intimidating to gay players. Interestingly, the team vs individual dynamic in professional sports can cut both ways, as I learned from sports writer Kevin Majoros: "I have had several gay athletes from team sports tell me that, because they had the support of their teammates, nothing changed in the locker room [after coming out]. I don't think that exists in individual sports like tennis where the locker room culture is a mix of competitors. Wolf pack mentality kicks in and the one perceived as the weakest is the target. It's going to take a really tough tennis player to be the one to step forward first."

Still another issue is players’ concerns about what effect being out might have on their careers. Even though opportunities in professional tennis are objectively merit-based (when and where you get to play is based on your results and ranking, not the subjective decisions of a coach or a team owner), players might worry about corporate sponsors pulling away, or even losing support from their fans. For some players who want to be open about their sexuality, agents and other handlers may discourage them, warning that it could hurt their careers in unexpected ways.

Even if a player's worst fears about coming out are irrational, those feelings of fear can still be paralyzing. Cyd Zeigler explains that, at Outsports, their answer to combatting this kind of fear is by sharing stories of courage: stories of professional and student LGBTQ athletes across virtually every sport having the courage to be their authentic selves. Their motto, “Courage is Contagious,” speaks to the power that one brave individual can have to inspire others to speak up. In men's professional tennis, that one individual has yet to come forward but, when he does, I hope it will kickstart a new environment where all players can feel comfortable living their truth, free from judgement and fear.