I don't know about you guys in the US but it's common to hear teenagers in the UK use the phrase "that's so gay" to describe anything they don't like.  I find this very alarming and believe that any TV show should take steps to address that sort of behaviour straight away.

Those guys on Ultimate Fighter should have been kicked off the show at once although, by the sound of it, the series would have ended as all the fighters appeared homophobic.

You may recall the recent race row on Celebrity Big Brother and Big Brother this year.  In both examples, a housemate was evicted for using unacceptable language.  However, when one of the guys put down another (straight) guy with a gay slur, nothing was said.  He wasn't even warned.

I was heartened to see that a contestant left Hell's Kitchen this year after making homophobic comments to a colleague.  But still, he walked due the very vocal disgust of his colleagues and not because he was kicked off the show.

The public need to be reminded that homophobic behaviour is just as unacceptable as racism.

parts of it (he likes martial arts and has taken karate) so I have caught glimpses of it.  The behaviour you described by one fighter was not only very immature but to me signals some latent same-sex attractions.

The fact is there is still a sizable segment of the hetero male world that is, let us say not too bright, and still caught up in that macho bulls**t which equates being physically tough with being a "man".  Ice hockey and football have a significant number of these guys as well.  They equate being physically weak with being a fag (I am impressed they are using the word gay in this show).  I endured these taunts with just about every male between grades 6 and 13 and to a much lesser extent in University.

The times are changing though, in hockey homophobic and super-macho goon behaviour is probably less than it was 30 years ago, partially due to the influx of European players (Europeans especially Scandinavians are more liberal than North Americans), but also due to the changing of how young males are socialized.  Hetero males today are much more likely to be exposed to less stereotypical gay males.  For instance my 21 year-old nephew and his male friends know that my partner and I are gay and we do not fit any stereotypes.  In the 1970's openly gay "straight-acting" males were extremely rare, they are much more common now.  This increased exposure to gays is probably why in a survey of hockey players the majority of players indicated they would have no problems having a gay teammate, that question would have gotten a very different answer 30 even 20 years ago.

Cheers

JBE

Thanks JBE - I enjoyed reading your perspective on this.

In a previous post, I mentioned that I work for a gay-friendly employer - Ford Motor Company.  I served as Chair of their LGBT group, GLOBE, for a couple of years and have noticed that homophobia still rears its ugly head from time to time, but mainly in the manufacturing plants.

I think today's modern office worker is bright enough not to make homophobic comments in the office but I'm not so sure that factory workers are as switched-on.  Now, I'm not implying that this is an intelligence issue (I used to work in a factory myself) but an overall sophistication that is lacking.

I'm sure that some of my office colleagues are homophobic.  In fact, one executive, who served on the diversity council, cracked a homophobic joke to me in the company gym, not realising who I was.  At the time we were both naked so I let it go but I did drop by his office later in the day and introduce myself.  He went very pale.

It sounds like this behaviour still needs stamping out in sports.  Indeed, there is a campaign to end homophobia in football in the UK.

As I mentioned in my post about closeted gay men on TV gay men have higher levels of free testosterone than straight men.  Gay men are also more likely to be left handed than straight men which is an advantage in sports like martial arts, tennis, and hockey.  So I have no idea why there are no openly gay men in the sport.  Ben Patrick Johnson interviewed a former Ultimate Fighter who is gay.  I strongly suspect that there is a strong gay culture in Ultimate Fighting as there is in bodybuilding, wrestling and boxing.

I think the anti-gay sentiment in Ultimate Fighting as well as any team sport is both a subconscious and conscious reaction to being around men almost all the time.  In there mind they have to prove that the sport is as straight as possible even though they are homosocial and homoerotic.

 Thanx for the link, Evan, but I checked out the youtube clip you linked to, and it never mentioned ultimate fighting.All it said was the guy was an ex-porn star.

UPDATE:I checked Aaron Savvy's myspace page, and he was on Toughman, a show where amature fighters would step in the ring to fight.It was on FX.I barely remember it.It wasn't the UFC, and not quite MMA.Also, his orientation isn't mentioned.By the way, I'll be touching on his porn career as an example in an upcoming thread.(I literally have a whole list of things to start forum topics about.)

 I always hope that people in that position will come out in full pride mode.

You shouldn't worry about War Machine, he isn't bright.  "The strong will survive" is not how evolution works as he believes.  The best adapted will servive is a more accurate way of describing evolution.