A study of former high-school American football players has found that more than a third said they had had sexual relations with other men. In his study of homosexuality among sportsmen in the United States, openly gay sociologist Dr Eric Anderson found that 19 in a sample of 47 had taken part in acts intended to sexually arouse other men, ranging from kissing to mutual masturbation and oral sex. The 47 men, aged 18-23, were all American football players who previously played at the high school level but had failed to be picked for their university's team and were now cheerleaders instead. They were at various universities from the American south, Mid-West, west and north-west. Dr Anderson, a former high school sports teacher in California and now a lecturer at the University of Bath in England, said the study showed that society's increasing open-mindedness about homosexuality and decreasing stigma concerning sexual activity with other men had allowed sportsmen to speak more openly about these sexual activities. He found that this sex came in the form of two men and one woman, as well as just two men alone. He said that the sexual acts described differed from acts of 'hazing' or team-bonding that often include pretend-homosexual acts. "The evidence supports my assertion that homophobia is on the rapid decline among male teamsport athletes in North America at all levels of play," he writes in his study, 'Being masculine is not about whom you sleep with…Heterosexual athletes contesting masculinity and the one-time rule of homosexuality'. It will be published in the journal Sex Roles in January. "These findings differ from previous research on North American men who have sex with men, in several ways. First, previous research describes heterosexual men in heterogeneous group sex as men symbolically engaging in sexual practices with other men. "However, I find informants actually engage in sexual activity with other men. But this does not mean that they are gay. "Second, my informants do not feel that their same-sex sex jeopardizes their socially perceived heterosexual identities, at least within the cheerleading culture. "In other words, having gay sex does not automatically make them gay in masculine peer culture."
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 31st October 2007 - 11:00am