Can't say I'm familiar with this guy but good for him. Hopefully he serves as an example to other young athletes in a similar position as the world we live in (and the sport by extension) can be extremely bigoted. I remember that was one of the reasons Olympic and World Champion Kerron Clement gave for only coming out after retirement.
With that out of the way, is he any good?
He's one of the top 3 runners his age in the world. Do you follow the sport at all?
I've always viewed a wedding, homosexual or heterosexual, as a celebration of a couple's love and life long commitment to each other and not as a celebration of sexuality. As something bigger than just the bedroom. Perhaps I've been looking at it wrong.
That's the way it should be. But why are royal weddings such a big deal? Because of the promise of producing an heir. But my response was in reply to those who asked why we should celebrate someone coming out as gay when we don't celebrate people being straight. My point, probably not very clear, was that the celebration of being heterosexual is embedded throughout our society in weddings, anniversaries, Valentine's Day, etc.
At any rate, kudos to Nico Young for his public statement. I first saw him run a Woodward Park as a junior and look forward to continuing to follow his career.
Near 25% of posts so disgusting they warranted deletion and thread changed to only allow registered posters.
And people still question why coming out is a big deal or why Letsrun has its toxic reputation.
Yes, it’s sad that there is still so much bigotry out there. At the same time, I must say as a gay man it has been heartening to see the overwhelming positive response to Nico’s news on this site. When I was first saw this thread title, I had to brace myself for the inevitable snide comments I knew I would see from the usual suspects. While there has been some of that, the vast majority of comments here have been positive in nature. I was/am pleasantly surprised by the outpouring of support. As of this writing, 307 out of the 340 “votes” on the initial post in this thread have been in favor. That’s 90%!
I hope Nico knows the vast majority of people in the running community support him. I, for one, feel much better about being a regular on this site after today.
I don't want people to mistake what a deleted post is. Some of them are just replies to the deleted post. A poster posts something rude or off topic, and then a bunch of few people might reply to that post or call out the poster. We're going to delete the post and all the replies.
A site like Instagram might just hide all the replies under the "Replies" link you have to click on but we don't have that function so we will in a case like this delete the replies as well.
As a high school runner in the late ‘90s/early ‘00s, this would’ve been incredible to see. Someone so visible, so noteworthy, proudly coming out. There are 4 or 5 guys on my old cross country team who eventually came out but it was a long, difficult process for them. Props to Nico for being so bold.
I agree. I am not required to accept or celebrate his sexuality. And I don’t. Really it is none of my business. He makes it my business because he comments about it publicly.
Calling BS on this. He posted it on Instagram. That does not make it your business. You could have noted it and moved on. You did not have to come on here and post and pretend you really didn't want to. But you did and that speaks volumes.
What volumes does it speak? Instagram is about as public as it gets. The gentleman in question wants everyone to know his sexual orientation. He chose to make it public. You must expect people will comment on it. I would much prefer a world in which people kept their sexual proclivities to themselves.
..............or Liberty University and a number of other so called "Christian" schools.
Even conservatives have come way to the left on this issue. There are still definitely elements of the religious right that haven't moved. But it wouldn't be a big deal even at BYU. Nikki Hiltz girlfriend was at BYU when she came out. It made very small waves, but overall no big deal.
Being gay is the best thing in the world; nothing more stunning, brave, or important than that. Nico is my hero and favorite runner now due to who he loves. Prior to this announcement, I didn't really have feelings about him either way. Once you come out, you elevate yourself above others who have not done so and become something special.
Calling BS on this. He posted it on Instagram. That does not make it your business. You could have noted it and moved on. You did not have to come on here and post and pretend you really didn't want to. But you did and that speaks volumes.
What volumes does it speak? Instagram is about as public as it gets. The gentleman in question wants everyone to know his sexual orientation. He chose to make it public. You must expect people will comment on it. I would much prefer a world in which people kept their sexual proclivities to themselves.
No sir, you prefer a world in which LGBT people kept their sexual orientations to themselves.
Let's break down your original statement. That's true, it is not required for you to celebrate anything, but what do you mean by "not accept"? You not accepting Nico being gay doesn't make him less gay. He's still out there, still running, still competing. What is your plan now? Are you going to just pretend he's straight or something?
The "commenting on it publicly" is interesting to me. You seem frustrated that he wrote on his own instagram page about being gay. What is actually wrong with him wanting everyone to know? People mostly assume people are straight unless they say otherwise. I've never met him, nor have I spent any amount of time thinking about his personal life, but if you asked me if I had thought he was gay or straight, I guess would have said straight.
Yesterday, I opened thread which was deleted due to crappy posts about Matt Llano. When Matt Llano came out, I thought "oh that's cool good for him" but reading the posts on this thread, I am really impressed by what a huge impact his coming out had on so many kids. Nico is doing the same. I say bravo to him.
No problem with him being gay but the coming out thing as an athlete will most certainly be a net lost as a runner. As of this moment, the focus will be more on his sexuality than his running. I saw this happen with Nikki Hiltz which I guess is ok if that's what you want.
What is the alternative for him? Hide his relationships from instagram while all his teammates and competitors happily post about theirs? Deal with whispers, and rumors on the letsrun message boards? What choice did he have?
We are slowly inching our way towards a world in which these things are fully accepted. We aren't there yet.
Being gay is the best thing in the world; nothing more stunning, brave, or important than that. Nico is my hero and favorite runner now due to who he loves. Prior to this announcement, I didn't really have feelings about him either way. Once you come out, you elevate yourself above others who have not done so and become something special.
Straight people (and I am a straight myself) who are jealous of gay people because they 'come out' fascinate me.
You do understand, that people like you who mock him are the reason why "coming out" is brave in the first place? If you want coming out to be "no big deal" heck if you want coming out to be a thing of the past, maybe don't mock?
The "NBD" defense is a defense that is ALWAYS used by people who believe it IS a big deal. It makes you uncomfortable, because you believe LGBT people are beneath you. And because you believe this, you grow frustrated at the praise and support bestowed upon those that do come out. You don't want to have to deal with people being LGBT in front of you but you can't say so without being a bigot. So if you cry "what's the big deal!" you feel that people will stop talking about it, and you can avoid being called who you are.
Side note, another way NBD people operate is whenever an LGBT person gets praised for being brave (example Caitlyn at the ESPYs) the NBDers will what-about, and ALWAYS it's "what about the military! what about the vets!" Always. It's fail safe. No one can disagree that the military is not worthy of praise for being courageous. And again, it's a safe shield to hide behind. But realistically, they know more than one person can be praised for bravery, and courage comes in different forms. What they are truly upset about is that an LGBT person is being recognized, and they can't express jealousy/frustration over it without acknowledging bigotry.
I'm happy for Nico and think it must be a big weight off his shoulder. That being said. I do have one quibble with tpart of his statement.
Why does he talk about a straight person's sexual orientation being celebrated? Is being heterosexual ever celebrated? No it's not. No ever puts a "straight" flag on their front porch. The closet being straight comes to being celebrated is maybe a baby shower but you can have a baby shower for a gay couple as well.
There is no straight equivalent of PFLAG - Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbian and Gays. So being straight isn't celebrated.
I agree. I am not required to accept or celebrate his sexuality. And I don’t. Really it is none of my business. He makes it my business because he comments about it publicly.
Most 20 year olds post publicly about significant life events. He commented publicly because it’s a big deal to him. The public post was probably more catharsis than anything else.
It takes a lot of guts for an athlete to come out. Too bad that gay NFL, NBA and MLB players still have to hide in the closet- there has to be several and I bet some are well known.