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Why Super Bowl Sunday Can Still Be Fraught For Gay Football Fans

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In the latest OutSports, Alex Reimer shares the complicated relationship between his sports fandom and sexuality.

Reimer says: My foray into the gay world began when I joined Boston’s LGBTQ flag football league in 2016. I started dating men three years prior, but until then, my gay life basically ended in the bedroom. I wanted to change that. So I turned to what I knew best: sports.

While I am not a great athlete, I certainly felt more comfortable on a football field than other places. Plus, I figured I would have something to talk about with the other guys. These familiarities eased my trepidations about entering a gay space…. My personal aversion to femininity, and basically anything with a modicum of flamboyancy, was rooted in self-loathing. I was holding back part of myself, and sports were my mask.

Today, my relationship with sports is less obsessive.

Read the full essay here.

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