Is Chris Kluwe Gay?

It&8217;s a peculiar day when one of the most significant sports stories, devoid of game highlights or previews, centers on a punter who hasn't competed in his league for a year. Nevertheless, that's the prevailing situation presently. This stems from former Vikings Punter Chris Kluwe penning an article where he articulates his stance. He argues that his position in advocating for gay marriage significantly influenced his job loss as an NFL player. Kluwe presents compelling arguments. He states that, despite being the Vikings' record holder across multiple punting categories, and having a season matching his career averages, he was dismissed during the offseason. Additionally, he brings up instances where special teams coordinator Mike Priefer displayed overt antagonism toward him, along with making aggressively homophobic remarks in response to Kluwe&8217;s activism. Though Kluwe asserts that his situation doesn't signify a wider problem in the NFL, recent developments suggest otherwise.

I recall when Kluwe initially "came out" in favor of gay marriage. Fellow NFL player Brendon Ayanbadejo had recently voiced his support for the legalization of same-sex marriage and had been rebuffed by a Maryland state delegate. Reacting to this, Kluwe penned an open letter to that delegate. He voiced his support of same-sex marriage and called out the delegate on his apprehension that if two men wed, he would "magically morph into a lustful cockmonster." Kluwe and Ayanbadejo were, quite possibly, the two most prominent active NFL players openly supporting gay rights at the time. This occurred six months before NBA player Jason Collins came out. At the time, I felt this was likely as close to a major men's professional athlete coming out as gay as we would witness in the subsequent five or ten years. Consequently, I was fairly pleased with him. Despite being a hardcore femme, I'm also a rather large football fan. Thus, both of these players were already on my radar when they started speaking up. I had hoped to see Kluwe continue his NFL career, so he could keep advocating for same-sex marriage. He could lead pride parades and soften the ground for the first openly queer NFL player. Sadly, he was cut by the Vikings, and, to this day, no active NFL players have come out.

It was nice to see Kluwe&8217;s advocacy. However, I always thought a bit too much emphasis was placed on his role as an ally. If you examine women&8217;s sports, professional athletes have not only spoken in favor of gay rights but have actually been openly gay for decades. It&8217;s unfortunate that the society we inhabit values and pays attention to men&8217;s sports to such a higher degree that a punter favoring gay marriage has remained a news story for a year and a half, receiving substantially more coverage than any single story about an out women&8217;s athlete. As long as the NFL and other men&8217;s professional leagues have atmospheres of such heightened and fragile masculinity, things are going to continue in this vein. If a couple of vocal allies are all we can get from the NFL, each time another one surfaces, it will make headline news.

It's a curious phenomenon, observing a straight, cisgender man claiming to have lost his job because - or partly because - he's an "ally." For many queer individuals, this is a commonplace experience. Presently, only twenty-one states have laws safeguarding LGBTQ workers. Thirty-eight percent of openly LGB workers say they've faced workplace harassment, and seventy-eight percent of transgender people surveyed have stated the same. Close to ten percent of openly LGB workers have reported losing a job due to their queer identity. This figure jumps to a staggering forty-seven percent for transgender workers. Kluwe may have felt he was targeted at his place of work for standing up for gay rights, but those attacks weren&8217;t really aimed at him. Hearing one of their bosses say, "we should round up all the gays, send them to an island, and then nuke it until it glows" (as he alleges Priefer did) might unsettle an ally and make them uncomfortable. However, it's not going to instill fear for their life. This anti-gay advocacy climate didn't just dissuade Kluwe from continuing to speak out; more critically, it is discouraging queer players from coming out.

Priefer has refuted the accusations. He claims he made the hateful comments Kluwe alleged. He claims that he is not a bigot and that Kluwe was fired for his performance. Despite this, during their time working together, Priefer openly clashed with Kluwe&8217;s advocacy on several issues. The Vikings are also denying Kluwe's claims, but they will "thoroughly review the matter."

While the reasons for Chris Kluwe losing his job may be connected to his outspokenness, he still felt comfortable enough to speak up. He still felt that the NFL was a place where he could voice his opinion without being shunned by his teammates, his peers, or his fans. Though Kluwe might contend he doesn't believe the NFL has an issue with institutionalized homophobia, the fact remains that no NFL players are openly queer. There aren&8217;t even a substantial number who are as vocal in their support of LGBTQ people as Kluwe was. The reality is that the NFL doesn't seem like a safe place for queer men to openly exist at all.

In addition to the limited number of vocal LGBTQ allies in the NFL, the league&8217;s relationship with masculinity and the gay community has been a particularly contentious issue in the past year. During the months leading up to last year's NFL draft, several players had their sexuality questioned as part of their pre-draft vetting process. The most well-known was Manti Te&8217;o, who claimed to have been the victim of a catfishing scheme, where the person he believed was his long-distance girlfriend was actually a man posing as a woman online. Despite the fact he went on national television and told Katie Couric, "No. Far from it. Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar from it," when asked if he was gay, several NFL teams were still considering his sexuality when deciding whether or not to draft him. Another college football player, tight end Nick Kasa, was similarly asked the completely unexpected question, "Do you like girls?" during his interviews with numerous teams. While being gay has absolutely no bearing on an athlete&8217;s on-field ability, it's evidently still enough of an issue that even rumors a player might be gay can damage his draft prospects. According to an NFL spokesperson, "It is league policy to neither consider nor inquire about sexual orientation in the hiring process," but that doesn&8217;t seem to have deterred teams from trying.

This notion that the NFL locker room is a space for hypermasculine men who want nothing to do with homosexuality or anything considered unmanly resurfaced this autumn. Offensive lineman Jonathan Martin abruptly exited the Miami Dolphins due to racist bullying and an abusive environment in the locker room. When Martin left the team, numerous news and gossip sites reported that he was being bullied because he was gay, notwithstanding the absence of evidence supporting this. What Martin is, is a Stanford-educated man whose parents both attended Harvard and was considered by certain teammates to be "not as black" as Richie Incognito, his white teammate who spearheaded the bullying and used racial and homophobic slurs against Martin.

Not only was Martin's sexuality and manhood questioned before quitting the team, but the attacks persisted afterward. Several Dolphins teammates immediately rallied to Incognito's and the other bullies' defense, even though transcripts and recordings of him shouting epithets and death threats toward Martin were made public, and another player threatened to rape Martin&8217;s sister. None of these claims were denied; the players merely felt that Martin should have "manned up." Former NFL great Lawrence Taylor added his opinion, saying he'd permit Incognito in his locker room before Martin and that "If you are that sensitive and weak-minded, then find another profession." Others expressed that the correct course of action would have been for Martin to physically fight Incognito if he had a problem with him. Perhaps these players would have been more appreciative of Kluwe, who, rather than asking for workplace protections, thus admitting he needed help and support, insulted his former employers and called for them to be punished. Kluwe chose the more "manly" route, the path of revenge. How can we genuinely discuss professional sports being a more welcoming setting for queer athletes if we can't even concur that openly antagonistic interpersonal relationships, even among straight individuals, are undesirable?

Kluwe's case is just the latest in a year where heteronormativity and masculinity have been significant issues for the NFL. Even Kluwe&8217;s articles calling out homophobia have been exercises in manliness and masculinity. He ensures that while he's defending the right for same-sex couples to get married, he sounds as tough and aggressive as he can. Maybe these are some positive signs, though, if they can get us talking about the problem and questioning these long-held attitudes. Another essential aspect to remember is that none of the individuals targeted for going against the NFL&8217;s apparent strict "no homo" policy actually are openly gay. If they were, it&8217;s plausible that they never would have reached this stage in their careers in the first place. At this point last year, both Kluwe and Ayanbadejo were still on NFL rosters, other players were being called out on their homophobic comments, and things looked promising that the first openly gay NFL player was just around the corner. However, with draft prospects being questioned on their sexuality, players potentially being cut for supporting gay rights, toxic locker room cultures, and even "allies" continuing to embody hypermasculinity and heteronormativity, perhaps we haven't truly progressed as far as we had initially believed.

Mey

Mey Rude is a fat, trans, Latina lesbian living in LA. She's a writer, journalist, and a trans consultant and sensitivity reader. You can follow her on twitter, or go to her website if you want to hire her.

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