From The Editor: The Sports Issue
“Sport has all the drama of the theatre, except it’s real!
Sport is just like theatre except you don’t know how it’s going to end!” This was how I tried to persuade regular DNA contributor, Garry Nunn to come to an Australian Rules football match with me. Gary loves musical theatre. He launched the Club Broadway musical theatre parties with DJ Dan Murphy in Australia last year.
“I’d rather pluck out my own eyes,” he replied, or something similar. Gary has zero interest in playing or watching sports so I’m grateful that he worked on two sports-related stories in this issue (Pride House and Gays For Gold). But I’m right! When you go to the theatre, you know that Hamlet dies, that the star-crossed lovers will end up together, and that the villain will be punished.
Not so with sport. Everyone assumes that Novak Djokovic will win the grand slam title against his much younger, less experienced rival but, four spellbinding hours later, Carlos Alcaraz is the new king of Wimbledon.
Sport doesn’t play by the script and there are no certainties until the final siren sounds. There are goodies and baddies, and sometimes the baddie turns out to be the one you want to win! Sport has all the drama of the theatre, except it’s real, and happening in real time.
Gays and sport have had a problematic relationship. Gay men often feel excluded from sport, especially team sports, because of, let’s be frank, the macho bullshit that can go on. The changeroom can have an undercurrent of homoerotic tension and a tangible homophobia at the same time. This makes it a dangerous place for gay men unless they are super confident and have the backing of their teammates.
Unfortunately, this means that a lot of us miss out on all the benefits of participating in team sports. These include social bonding, and network and friendship building, and these in turn help promote confidence, higher self-esteem and better mental health. We explore these themes this month with our features on The Bingham Cup and Nathan Michael’s story, One For The Team.
We have two Straight Mates this month, Jacob Despard (sprinter) and Shaun Connor (sailor) and both are off to the Paris Olympics. Gay Sport Climber, Campbell Harrison finishes our sentences in The Last Word interview, and he’s also off to Paris. We wish them all the best.
Andrew Creagh, Founding Editor E: burnttoast@dnamagazine.com
DNA #294 – The Sports Issue is on sale now.
