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In a recent article on Bloomberg.com, columnist Scott Soshnick says, "Athletes toss around slurs like rolled-up wads of discarded tape. Among jocks, it's the ultimate insult to insinuate that someone might be gay, which is probably why no male athlete has ever come out while still in uniform."

Ian O'Connor, a special contributor to FoxSports.com, also makes some powerful points in a recent column. "The more major sports leagues educate their players on this issue, the more likely it is that a gay athlete will emerge from the closet as eagerly as Jackie Robinson pushed through the Dodgers' clubhouse door," O'Connor says.

But he is quick to add that "Right now, no homosexual man currently playing in Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA, or the NHL can take an honest survey of the landscape and know for sure that he'll be supported by his own team and league."

"Leagues and franchises are forever bringing in federal agents and counselors to warn players about the evils of gambling and drugs. They are forever preaching the need to practice responsible, safe sex. They are forever issuing alerts about the presence of the steroid police," O'Connor continues.

"But the subject of homosexuality in sports remains taboo, even though statistics and common sense suggest there are gay players in almost every locker room. Don't ask, don't tell, is the prevailing law of the land."

Washington Post columnist Jenkins does, however, touch on an important aspect of the argument and blames more than just major-league players for the overwhelmingly negative stereotypes and myth associated with gay men.

She says, "Athletes are increasingly separate from the rest of us--and we're all complicit in that fact. We identify them as stars as early as grade school, socialize them as privileged exceptions, pay them 25 times what the average person earns, and coach them to abdicate on social issues. So, it's no wonder that so many of them live in a bubble of self-absorption, and seem to think courage is demonstrated only on the field."

The media itself is largely to blame for the idolatry of sports figures, which in turn draws deep line of separation between the "stars" and the "regular people" in the stands. But O'Connor's previously mentioned piece in The Journal News does include another interesting argument from Yvette Christofilis, executive director of a gay and lesbian community services center based in White Plains. “It's not the fans the gay player is probably worried about," Christofilis says, "I think it's the locker room, the organizations, the leaderships and the advertisers. I think most fans would applaud it."

The change, most media agrees, needs to first come from within the professional sports organizations, which stand steadfastly by the "Don't ask, don't tell" mantra. Fans will follow suit.

In the end, it‘s not only about making gay players feel comfortable enough to admit they are gay. It’s about a male baseball player’s partner or boyfriend cheering them on in the stands and a kiss after the big game. It’s about a basketball player’s serving as the grand marshall for a gay pride parade, with straight teammates in tow. It’s about a football jock hanging with his friends at a swanky gay bar without being exposed by paparazzi.

And it’s about all of these things happening while these players are still on major-league teams.

As for Swoopes, she says she does not expect to lose her lucrative endorsement deals with Nike and other companies. One of the reasons Swoopes says she has come out is an endorsement deal with Olivia Cruises and Resorts, the nation's most prominent lesbian-centered business.

Good for her. And maybe, just maybe, professional male athletes will get there someday.

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