There’s been a lot of excitement recently about Jason Collins becoming the first out gay player in one of America’s four major professional sports leagues, as well as the possibility that college footballer Michael Sam may become the first out and proud member of an NFL team later this year.
However these men are far from the first gay players, they’re just the first ones to be open with the public about it while they were playing. Now one of those earlier gay athletes is getting a movie made about him and Jamie Lee Curtis is producing it. She’s behind Out At Home: The Glenn Burke Story, based on the autobiography by Burke and Erik Sherman.
Burke became one of Baseball’s top player in the 1970s, playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland A’s. Although he didn’t come out publicly until after he’d retired in 1982 (he was still the first former professional US sportsman to do so though), he had told his teammates and managers.
There was a mixed reaction from them, with some being supportive while others were less so – although they were often more concerned about how it might be seen from the outside than the fact he was gay. For example, Dodgers general manager Al Campanis offered to pay for an incredibly expensive honeymoon if Burke agreed to have a sham marriage. The player declined.
Interestingly Burke is also often credited with creating the high five.
In recent weeks there’s been a lot of talk about how accepting major sports will be of gay players, as well as how teammates will react to them in the locker room. However Burke showed it was possible more than 30 years ago. As he said, “They can’t ever say now that a gay man can’t play in the majors, because I’m a gay man and I made it.”
Jamie Lee Curtis has been trying to get the movie made for years, but its only now with Jason Collins’ first appearance for the Brooklyn Nets that she’s getting some traction to put in on the screen. Deadline reports that Lost in Translation producer Ross Katz has recently come on-board to help develop the movie and he will write the script.
Curtis says, “With Michael Sam’s brave and bold statement, he joins the trifecta of American sports — Glenn Burke, MLB; Jason Collins, NBA; Michael Sam, NFL — dealing with gay athletes, and forcing open the door permanently. Our film will clearly honor the force and the struggle to get there.”
Burke himself sadly died of AIDS in 1995.
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