Robbie Rogers: A History in the Making

Robbie Rogers is a former midfielder for the Columbus Crew in Major League Soccer and Leeds United in England. He represented the United States at the U18 and U20 levels, and made several appearances for the United States Men’s National Team in World Cup qualifying, CONCACAF Gold Cups, and in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. He recently signed a 4-year contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Why is this significant? Because in his personal blog this past February, at the age of 25, Rogers publicly came out as a gay man and said he was retiring from professional soccer.

This story is not a new one—obviously American journalists have been covering Roger’s story since…well…February. And at the time, like many other Americans engrossed in soccer culture, I was greatly disappointed that he was calling it quits. He may not be the best American soccer player ever to play the beautiful game professionally, but all of us agreed that at his age with the level of talent he did have for him to retire because he was gay was simply a crime to international football.

My Coming-Out Q&A (Part 2)

In a recent post, I imitated the senior project of the high school student who interviewed the life stories of several gay people. I was inspired by the documentary, and decided to do a similar thing myself.

To recap, I previously answered these questions about myself: How old were you when you first came out? Did you always accept yourself [as a gay man]? What was the reaction of those around you? Have you ever been personally victimized or abused for being gay? What is hetero-normative society? What advice would you give to anyone who was debating about whether or not to come out as gay?

This time, I will be focusing more on the questions regarding my own perception or subjective understanding of my homosexuality. This post will be about my relation to my homosexuality itself, rather than about my relationships with others. I hope it will be just as insightful for you as before.

So without further ado, here it goes:

Homosexuality in the Mennonite Church

One of the primary issues facing the Mennonite Church in North America today is the issue of inclusion for homosexuals in the church. 

Granted, this issue has been discussed for a long time now; but prior to 2009, a gag order had been in place, essentially putting this particular discussion on hiatus for decade or so (that is, at the denominational and conference levels anyway. Individual congregations could still have discussions as they so pleased).

The gag order understandably came into place due to the newly forming Mennonite Church USA—presumably to allow the new denomination to settle-in after the merger from two separate denominations, and iron out all of the kinks that goes along with that before engaging in such a divisive issue. 

So, for ten years, no one was allowed to express their opinions openly concerning homosexuality…that is, until Columbus ’09.

The Importance of a Supporting Community

Since coming home, I have been reminded of something important, something I already knew of, but had become so accustom to that I took it for granted: Community.

A novel idea, I know, coming from a Mennonite; but do not let my sarcasm fool you. Having a support network around you to help you is very important…especially when you are gay.

Gay vs. God

If you were to ask me what the current state was between homosexuality and Christianity, I’m not entirely sure how to answer that one. I would say it is encouraging to see how many churches are becoming openly affirming and accepting, but there are still far too many yet that are not anywhere close; and that makes for a very polarized confrontation surrounding the issue of the level of acceptance.

However, if there is one thing I could say about all of this—if I were to, say, write a paper on it—my thesis would essentially be this: Homosexuality is the one issue that—in order to survive—I feel the church, as the universal body of Christ, will have to admit defeat and learn from secular culture that homosexuality is not wrong, but is instead something to be accepted as a natural part of life and (for some of us) to be embraced.

The Littlest Things Make All the Difference

I quite often play soccer whenever I am home with one of my best friends, who is currently engaged. Recently, after one of our scrimmages, he offered to give me a ride home.

This particular time around, I had decided to walk because I only live 5-ish blocks from the field; so I did not really think a ride from my friend was necessary. Nevertheless, he had offered, so I thought…why not? I’ll be courteous.

On the drive to my house he asked, “Do you like men?”

Preaching To The Choir...Almost...

I am always surprised when I come home how much opposition I DON’T get for being gay. If you read my previous post, “Land I Cannot Love,” you may have gotten the impression that this is an awful place to live as an openly gay man. But the truth is, it is not as bad as you or I would assume.

Now maybe I am just special because I actually do  try to juggle my faith with my sexual orientation. Is it possible that my continued interest in religion—more than most I might add—in an area of the country that is highly religious gives me some leeway that I would not have been given otherwise? It seems odd for that to be the case, because most of the opposition gay people get comes from religious people…and it is not like this is a religiously liberal area of the country either.

The Narnia Inside My Closet: Part 3

< Part 1  |  Part 2 >

In my first two posts, I wrote about my life growing up. I was a gay teenager who did not know how to process the fact that I was gay. The fact that I did not know anyone else around me who knew what I was going through put me even further into a rut.

The whole situation was actually quite simple: underlying my whole rejection of my own attraction to boys was my faith.

Green Lantern is Gay?

Hal Jordan

If you know me fairly well, you know that I am into comics; and my absolute favorite superhero is DC Comics’ Green Lantern, one of the founding members of the Justice League—alongside other notable members like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash. 

Recently, all of the comic book producers have been on a kick to make their stories more LGBT inclusive. DC has already told us that Batwoman is a lesbian. In fact, Marvel is just about ready to have Northstar, their openlygay Canadian member of the X-men, marry his gay partner Kyle Jinado. If there was ever a time to be gay and reading comics it is now!

The Land I Cannot Love

After going back to live with my parents were I grew up, I recently realized something that I did not like: inevitably, probably not in the too distant future, I will be forced to move away from here for good.

This scared me; the thought of packing up a U-haul with everything I own and going to live in a new place—although it sounds exciting—brought tears to my eyes. Tears not of joy, but of sadness. I, very much down to my deepest bone, want to love this place—to call it home. The problem is I cannot. Being gay is just too much of a burden.

The Narnia Inside My Closet: Part 2

< Part 1  |  Part 3 >

In my first post, I describe how I lived alone with my questions of my sexual orientation. I had no one to turn to, no one to trust in; I was alone. So I hid it away, pretending it was not there. And anytime anyone came close to figuring it out, I gave them excuses that led them in the other direction.

I hoped that when I got to college, I would know what to do; hoped that something would have changed. But when I finally got there it was not like anything had changed, and now I started to run out of excuses.

The Narnia Inside My Closet: Part 1

< Part 2  |  Part 3 >

When someone starts to openly tell other people that he or she is gay, it is typically said that they are “coming out of the closet”—or simply “coming out.” I have never liked this analogy. To me, it implies you were hiding something, as if you knew who you were all along.

But for me, it was not that simple. Telling other people I was gay was not a “coming out”; for me, it was a “coming-of-age.”