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Athletic Allies

Rugby pro Ben Cohen

A lot of people, myself included, wish that more top-level athletes would come out. Based on rough statistics, it’s clear that there are many athletes competing in the upper echelons of their sports who are queer but remain closeted. The fact is, though, that coming out as an elite athlete is a catch 22–athletes aren’t going to come forward until there is less of a stigma around homosexuality in sports, but there isn’t going to be less of a stigma until there are more openly gay athletes.

This is where straight allies come in. Recently, several high profile straight athletes have publicly declared their allegiance to lgbt rights and to lgbt athletes.

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