http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/are-the-sports-worlds-anti-homophobia-campaigns-eradicating-homophobia-in-sports/discrimination/2012/04/02/37373
While more professional athletes have come out of the closet in the past year than in the past decade, one expert on homophobia in professional sports says the sports world is still the last great bastion of institutionalized homophobia.
In 2011, dozens of athletes publicly came out across a spectrum of disciplines, ranging from swimming to cycling to soccer. Momentum gathered as several high-profile organizational figures — such as Phoenix Suns president Rick Welts and ESPN radio host Jared Max — followed suit, and straight allies like wrestler Hudson Taylor, of Athlete Ally, and rugger Ben Cohen, who founded the StandUp Foundation, helped put the anti-homophobia message on the international agenda.
The same year, Major League Baseball got involved at the franchise level when the San Francisco Giants participated in Dan Savage’s It Gets Better project, and by the end of the season a total of eight MLB teams had produced videos for the campaign.
Former basketballer Charles Barkley was vocal in his condemnation of homophobia in sports, and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) ran its Think B4 You Speak campaign on television during a National Basketball Association game in May.