Men of all sexual orientations look at each other’s penises in the shower. They measure themselves against other men. They roughhouse naked in the locker room. They talk explicitly about what they do sexually, what they like. They paint graphic pictures for their teammates of them having sex (with a woman, of course always with a woman).ĭon’t believe me? Just ask Anthony Davis. None of this makes any of the participants “gay.” Truly. Long before there ever was “gay,” this is what men did. In ancient Greece and Rome, homosexual conduct was just your run-of-the-mill Tuesday visit to the bath house or trist with acquaintances. Today, men in particular are forced to “choose” between being gay and being straight (despite what I personally believe to be the preponderance of bisexuality among humans).
Sports are the ultimate test case for all of that. With mostly fit, athletic bodies, male athletes come together naked in the locker room, at the very least taking careful notice of the naked bodies next to them. This doesn’t make the athletes “gay” per se, it means they are human. In Wilkins’ case, that spilled out onto the field in front of a national television audience, a moment of blunt honesty.
