John Amaechi Managed to Not Molest Anyone

And I realize that you probably weren't wondering, and neither was I ... but Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel evidently was. He writes an entry on his "Magic Basketblog" today entitled "So Meech Is Gay? Yawn," which offers meandering praise about Amaechi as a solid dude, and then lightly criticizes Amaechi for making a big deal about his coming out, as if Amaechi is the one who gets to decide if it's a big deal.

And then towards the end, and this sort of comes out of nowhere, Schmitz writes this:

A young friend of Meech's that he mentored while in Orlando --- Meech worked with lots of troubled teens --- tells me today that John never did anything untoward. Never.

Well ... alright. What would that have to do with a guy being homosexual?

I know Brian Schmitz is trying to say something nice here, and I know he thinks he's doing the right thing by saying that this is no big deal ... but the fact is that Amaechi's coming out is a big deal, and it's a big deal because of things like what Schmitz just said. "Oh, Amaechi's gay? Well, he's still a nice guy. I better check to see if he molested any teenage boys, though."

That is precisely why it's still a big deal. Because people equate homosexuality with all sorts of things, even when they're trying to be nice about it. And even if some guys (like Steven Hunter and Shavlik Randolph, for example) want to act all nice about it ... there are things lying underneath that. Things like the blog item referenced above.

Thanks, TrueHoop, via Can't Stop the Bleeding.