Boston Sports Writer Comes Out of the Closet

(Newser) – Sports columnist Steve Buckley came out of the closet today, in a heartfelt piece in the Boston Herald that’s garnering widespread praise. Buckley says his mother told him to write the piece seven years ago, but when she died mere months later, he lost his nerve. “I’ve put this off long enough,” he writes. “For too many years I’ve been on the sidelines of Boston’s gay community … figuratively and literally, as I feel I would have had a pretty good career in the (gay) Beantown Softball League.”

The column has so far been well received. Rob Anderson of the Boston Globe called it brave, because in sports "it's really not okay to be gay,” and Buckley is a regular on WEEI radio, which “has a tendency toward overly macho, homophobic moments.” On WEEI’s Dennis and Callahan show, both hosts praised Buckley, but Gerry Callahan said the admission would make his life harder. “He’s on the frontlines down at Foxborough,” he said, according to the New York Daily News. “He's in the locker room, he's dealing with fans. He's gonna be out there in the open and it's not gonna be easy.”