QUEER EYE FOR THE SPORTS GUYS. As a straight guy, I can tell you how easy it is for straight guys to make fun of gay men who are demonstrably effeminate. (I�d be lying if I said I have never made gay jokes; in certain settings straight men often make gay remarks, often about and to each other.) So, for example, Carson Kressley from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy makes a convenient target because he fits the even more convenient stereotype: a thin, neat, self-described sissy who proudly knows his way around Sephora. That�s probably why former NBA star Tim Hardaway freaked out upon learning that a 6�10�, 270-pounder like John Amaechi, with whom he used to share a locker room, is gay. Ditto for the news last year that former Minnesota Vikings lineman Esera Tuaolo is a homosexual -- with a hubby and two adopted kids now, to boot. Kressley is a guy you could -- pardon the pun -- lick in a fight; Amaechi and Tuaolo, not so much. The bothersome part is not that they might be looking at your ass, but that they could kick your ass. Beneath all the �ruins team morale� stuff, that is what I suspect is most troubling -- a gay man who can compete in the most physically demanding, even punishing, of professional sports. --Tom Schaller
