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Star Quarterback in High School Comes Out As Gay in New Novel
 

■ Bill Konigsberg at book signing at Barnes & Noble in New York: “I think my protagonist Bobby Framingham is the kind of person who could become out first openly gay professional athlete.” photo courtesy Bill Konigsberg

When openly gay Bill Konigsberg wrote his first novel, Out of the Pocket, he had, like most authors in a similar situation, a day job – in this case, as a sportswriter at The Associated Press.

Now, as he writes his second book – as yet without a title but scheduled for publication in 2010 – there is no day job.  He quit AP to concentrate on his new-found career.

Out of the Pocket was published last month by the Dutton imprint of Penguin USA.  Now, Dutton is the publisher of children’s books in America – in fact one of the most prestigious children’s publishers.

But do not let the fact that Dutton suggests that the book is for teenagers of 14 and upwards put you off.  The book is all about the conflicts of a teenager who knows he is gay – and the ‘coming out’ process.

And where better than to set the book than in a high school, with the “hero” being the star quarterback of the school’s football team, with, of course, all the girls in the school after him!

Yet, despite Bill Konigsberg’s background is sports, this is not a book about gridiron football – and no knowledge of the game is required.

“A lot of readers have written me to tell me how much they enjoyed the book and that they had worried that the football would be difficult or boring for them,” Bill Konigsberg told UK Gay News.

“Quite the contrary, they said.  They all seem excited and surprised that they followed the football scenes so well.”

It is simply a book – and a good read for anyone irrespective of age – that can do an enormous amount of good in addressing the fact that some people are gay … and so what?  Also publication is timed beautifully to coincide with the campaign in America to get youngsters to think before using the “so gay” words.

“I wrote Out of the Pocket for a lot of reasons,” he explained.

“Personally, I was an athlete in high school and stopped playing baseball my senior season when I decided to come out.  It was 20 years ago, and I had no frame of reference for understanding how I could be openly gay and still play sports.

“I figured my teammates wouldn’t accept me.  Probably I was right, although I will never know now.”

While things have changed significantly in the last 20 years, the fact remains that no male athlete in any of America’s four popular team sports – baseball, football, basketball and hockey – has ever come out while still playing (though Major League Baseball player Glenn Burke was “out” to both teammates and management at the LA Dodgers and Oakland Athletics in the late 1970s (one of baseball's best kept secrets?), coming “out” to the public in a 1982 article in Inside Sports.

“I wanted to write a story about someone right at the intersection of this issue, a kid so talented that he has a chance to play professionally, but who also is coming to terms with being gay.

“I think my protagonist Bobby Framingham is the kind of person who could become out first openly gay professional athlete,” he suggested.

“By that I mean that I don’t think someone will come out after the Super Bowl by kissing their boyfriend with the TV cameras rolling.  I think it will be someone from this younger generation, which seems so much more comfortable with gay issues, having grown up with gay characters on TV and in the movies.

“He’ll come out in high school, be out in college, and make the pros because he’s so talented.”

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“I was petrified that he was going to “out” me on national television.  He didn’t, but the fear was real.  There were no openly gay people in sports media at the time that I knew of, and all these years later, there are only a handful now.” photo courtesy Bill Konigsberg

From another angle, Mr. Konigsberg said he wrote Out of the Pocket because gay teens are still an “at-risk” group.

“Suicide among LGBT teens is still a massive problem that we need to address, and if reading this book can help one teenager feel that he isn’t alone, I will feel as if I’ve accomplished something.”

With the publication of a book comes the “book tour”.  And the reception has so far been good.  But he admits that, so far, tour stops have been in very “liberal” places like Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, and Wellesley, Massachusetts.

“It will be much more interesting when I go to Kansas in a few weeks,” he added.

“That said, from early reactions my book seems to strike a gentle chord with readers.

“There isn’t a real militant or preachy feel to the book.  Mostly, it’s just the story of a boy who happens to be gay, and has to navigate in uncharted waters.

“What many readers have commented on is that it’s hard to read the book and not really care about the characters.

“I have yet to get a single piece of hate mail.  That’s similar to what happened when I came out at ESPN.com.  The piece I wrote was assertive but not confrontational, and that impacted how people reacted to it.  I got at least 500 e-mails after that article came out, and not a single one was negative.

“How that happens is beyond me – lucky, I guess.”

Bill Konigsberg had been a sports writer for seven years before he wrote his “coming out” article on the ESPN website.

“Back in 1994, my first gig as a sports writer was simulating out the remainder of the baseball season using a computer when the baseball strike of that year occurred.

“I came up with the idea and sold it to several big newspapers across the country.  A major TV show, Dateline NBC, decided to do a feature on me.

“So there I was, with cameras rolling and a TV producer asking me questions, in the small studio apartment I shared with my boyfriend,” he remembered.

“The producer started looking around the place, and there is only one bed in this tiny apartment, and it’s clear from the decor that we’re two men.

“So the guy asks me: “So, who do you live here with?”

“I was squirming. “A friend,” I said.

“And there’s a picture of that friend, who is clearly in his late 30s, and here I am, 23.  He’s not exactly a fraternity brother.  “Where do you sleep" the guy asks?”.  “The couch”, I mumble.

“I was petrified that he was going to “out” me on national television.  He didn’t, but the fear was real.  There were no openly gay people in sports media at the time that I knew of, and all these years later, there are only a handful now.

“I bring this up because I was very hesitant to become a sports writer for this reason,” he explained.

“I always loved sports, but I wasn’t sure I could get away with being open with who I was.  I did a lot of evading in the early days.”

At ESPN, things were quite uncomfortable for him.

“I sat back and listened while co-workers made homophobic comments and said nothing.  I finally decided that being open with who I was, was more important than making sure everyone around me was comfortable.

“I came out, and things went really well.  I’d say that instead of my life getting worse at work, it got a lot better.

And that is what happened to the fictional Bobby Framlingham, star quarterback at Durango High School, who has his eyes firmly set on being accepted for a football scholarship at a top university – and an NFL career.

Oh, and one bit of advice: have a Kleenex handy when dad finds out – and speaks to Bobby!

■  Out of the Pocket by Bill Konigsberg.  Published by Dutton Books (a division of Penguin USA Inc).  September 2008.  264 pages.  ISBN: 978-0-525-47996-3.  Hardback. $16.99 ($18.50 Canadian).  There are no current plans for publication in UK.

UK readers can purchase the book from The Book Depository for £7.79 including postage etc.  Note: The Book Depository will ship at no extra cost to Western Europe, North America (shipping fulfilment in USA).

It is also available online from Amazon (USA, Canada and UK), Barnes & Noble or, in North America from your local independent bookseller.

Seed Newsvine  

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