GolfPlus- Dec19 Digital Edition (Dec 19) | Page 42

Feature
HOW GAY IS GOLF ?
By Michael Wilson
Not that is should matter one jot, but the fact that there is presently
just one openly gay male professional tournament golfer out of
1,000-plus men plying their particular sporting trade around the
world, whilst evidence-based statistics would suggest that very
many more homosexual men are remaining in the clubhouse closet.
nd while, in the
women’s professional
game, there are enough
openly lesbian players
as to no longer be
worthy of mention, why,
as we enter 2020, do gay
male golfers feel unable to come out and be
who, and what, they truly are?
According to Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s ‘Sexual
Behavior in the Human Male,’ ¿ rst published
in 1948 and his follow-up ¿ ve-years-later,
Sexual Behavior in the Human Female,’ a
staggering 37% of post-adolescent men and
13% of women in the USA had indulged in
homosexual activity.
More recent research, in particular David
Spiegelhalter, in his book ‘Sex By Numbers,’
concluded that Kinsey’s numerical predictions
were on the high side; the author concluded
that, across the sexes, some 10% of the adult
population is, ‘Predominately gay,’ thought to
be more prevalent amongst men at 14% than
5% of women.
‘Interesting societal research and an
46 G o l f P l u s
DECEMBER
insight into the human condition,’ I hear you
say, but asking, ‘What the hell has any of this
got to do with golf?’
Back in September 2018, Hawaiian-born
Tadd Fujikawa, who in 2007 became the
second-youngest player to make the cut at
a PGA Tour event, came out as openly gay,
understood to be the ¿ rst male professional
golfer to do so.
“I can’t wait for the day we all can live
without feeling like we’re different and
excluded,” he said in an emotional post at the
time on Instagram.
His thoughts and most personal emotions
were, and remain, not only unique, but also
insightful and intuitive.
“I’ve been back and forth for a while about
opening up about my sexuality,” Fujikawa,
now 28 and down amongst the dead men of the
OWGR, continued in his post, “I thought that
I didn’t need to come out because it doesn’t
matter if anyone knows, but I remember how
much other’s stories have helped me in my
darkest times to have hope.
“I spent way too long pretending, hiding,
2019
and hating who I was, I was always afraid of
what others would think [or] say, I’ve struggled
with my mental health for many years because
of that and it put me in a really bad place,” he
continued. “Now I’m standing up for myself
and the rest of the LGBTQ community in
hopes of being an inspiration and making a
difference in someone’s life.”
Tadd Fujikawa’s story, personally and
socially courageous though it undoubtedly is,
really only matters in two respects.
First, in this, the ¿ rst quarter of the 21st
century, the vast majority of right-minded,
well-meaning people could not care less about
his, or indeed anyone else’s sexual orientation,
their default response being either, ‘Well done,’
or, ‘So what.’ And, for that matter, providing
they are legal, any other aspects of their private,
personal lives are of equally little interest and
no concern to anyone other than the person
themselves, their friends and families. But
second, and must more importantly, why, more
than 12-months-later, does Tadd Fujikawa
remain the only male professional tournament
golfer to openly identify as gay?
Given there are at least 1,000 men
currently plying their trade in professional
tournament golf around the world, and taking
even the most conservative of estimates of the
prevalence of homosexuality amongst adult
men, it would not be unreasonable to assume
that up to 100 gay male golfers remain. ‘In the
closet,’ and living with the same emotional
challenges and anxieties experienced by Tadd
Fujikawa.
Meanwhile, in other sports, openly gay
athletes, if not freely abound, then are certainly
more run-of-the-mill than in golf.
In 2009, Welsh rugby star Gareth Thomas,
at that time a married man with children
came out; in tennis, global superstar Martina
Navratilova openly declared herself to be,
‘Gay,’ long before its was socially acceptable.