Props when they are deserved

I am often critical of Steve Buckley and his writing but what he did today took a lot of courage and I felt like he certainly needed to be lauded for it.  There is no way it could have been easy for him to publicly share this with us and I think his coming out is a wonderful thing.  I give most people the benefit of the doubt and I think if he was comfortable sharing this now, he isn’t worried about the reactions of the athletes he covers and that he probably doesn’t care if some of his readers abandon him because of it.

Does it matter that Steve Buckley is gay?  No it doesn’t.  No more than it matters that Gerry Callahan is straight.  But it matters that he has taken the step of coming out.  It will matter to a lot of people, a lot of gay people who don’t get to see themselves represented in sports media.  Maybe there’s a high school kid who wants to be a sports writer and is afraid being gay will make that difficult and Steve Buckley just showed him today that it isn’t necessarily the case?  Maybe Buckley has peers who will feel more comfortable now about being themselves and won’t worry about hiding a part of who they are?  This isn’t sports news and it isn’t baseball-related but it IS a big deal in that world. Good for Steve for finally being comfortable enough to be who he is to everyone, not just those who know him.

I’ll still never forgive him for his rants and lies about Nomar, though (and his various other shortcomings I’ve written about in the past).  Steve Buckley coming out is a good, positive thing.  Still doesn’t change the fact that he’s Steve Buckley.  (Wouldn’t want you all to think I’ve gone soft on the Boston Sports Media!)