Pro soccer player Robbie Rogers comes out as gay, leaves sport

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Pro soccer player Robbie Rogers comes out as gay, leaves sport
Feb 15th, 2013 by Jim Buzinski.

Robbie Rogers (Greg M.
Cooper-USA TODAY Sports)

Robbie Rogers, a former player on the U.S. national soccer team, Major League Soccer and in the English League Championship, has come out as gay. Rogers, 25, was released by Leeds United last month and appears to be stepping away from the sport. He posted this on his website today:

Now is my time to step away. It’s time to discover myself away from football. It’s 1 A.M. in London as I write this and I could not be happier with my decision. Life is so full of amazing things. I realized I could only truly enjoy my life once I was honest. Honesty is a bitch but makes life so simple and clear. My secret is gone, I am a free man, I can move on and live my life as my creator intended.

It’s hard to say if Rogers, who played for the Columbus Crew of the MLS before playing for Leeds and most recently League One’s Stevenage,  is retired forever or just trying to sort things out. I am still trying to process a 25-year-old stepping away from a sport he loves. The Chicago Fire of the MLS owns his rights and head coach Frank Klopas said this after hearing about Rogers’ coming out: “Yesterday I thought he was a very good player and I still think that today. Should Robbie want to return to the game, we would still be open to him being part of the Fire.”

On his Twitter feed, Rogers wrote, “Just getting some sh*t off my chest,” and linked to what he posted on his website:

The Next Chapter…

Things are never what they seem… My whole life I have felt different, different from my peers, even different from my family. In today’s society being different makes you brave. To overcome your fears you must be strong and have faith in your purpose.

For the past 25 year I have been afraid, afraid to show whom I really was because of fear. Fear that judgment and rejection would hold me back from my dreams and aspirations. Fear that my loved ones would be farthest from me if they knew my secret. Fear that my secret would get in the way of my dreams.

Dreams of going to a World Cup, dreams of The Olympics, dreams of making my family proud. What would life be without these dreams? Could I live a life without them?

Life is only complete when your loved ones know you. When they know your true feelings, when they know who and how you love. Life is simple when your secret is gone. Gone is the pain that lurks in the stomach at work, the pain from avoiding questions, and at last the pain from hiding such a deep secret.

Secrets can cause so much internal damage. People love to preach about honesty, how honesty is so plain and simple. Try explaining to your loved ones after 25 years you are gay. Try convincing yourself that your creator has the most wonderful purpose for you even though you were taught differently.

I always thought I could hide this secret. Football was my escape, my purpose, my identity. Football hid my secret, gave me more joy than I could have ever imagined… I will always be thankful for my career. I will remember Beijing, The MLS Cup, and most of all my teammates. I will never forget the friends I have made a long the way and the friends that supported me once they knew my secret.

Now is my time to step away. It’s time to discover myself away from football. It’s 1 A.M. in London as I write this and I could not be happier with my decision. Life is so full of amazing things. I realized I could only truly enjoy my life once I was honest. Honesty is a bitch but makes life so simple and clear. My secret is gone, I am a free man, I can move on and live my life as my creator intended.

Awesome article from AfterElton

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5 Awesome Current Artists Who Need Grammy Awards

Posted by Louis Virtel on February 6, 2013

The Grammys are this Sunday, which is exciting for award show fans and depressing for people who think those awards should go to the right people. Sigh. Here are five current artists still in need of official Grammy love.

5. Scissor Sisters

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Since the Scissor Sisters emerged a decade ago, their style has remained as quirky and danceable as anything Lady Gaga's ever produced, yet the Grammys haven't been as keen to reward the ragtag group with their due props. They've only been nominated once in the Best Dance Recording category, where the group's take on "Comfortably Numb" lost to Britney Spears' sole moment of brilliance, "Toxic." Where's the love for "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'"? Or this year's wickedly saucy "Let's Have a Kiki"?


4. Adam Lambert

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Get this: Zero male American Idol contestants have a Grammy to their name. Nope, not even Kevin Covais. Adam Lambert earned a nomination for "Whataya Want From Me?" last year (and lost to Bruno Mars in the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance category), but if anyone deserves multiple Grammys from the past five seasons of Idol, it's Lambert. Surely his latest album Trespassing is his best work to date, and if you can't even earn a Grammy nomination for notching a #1 album as a self-defined gay artist with a distinct pop sound and an otherworldly voice, maybe it's time for Grammy voters to revise their rubric.


3. Tori Amos

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Tori Amos is not only an accomplished songwriter who has released an unreal amount of material; she's also one of the most confessional and ambitious singer/songwriters of the past 20 years. Who else combines the eerie vulnerability of Laura Nyro with the beguiling angelic feminity of Kate Bush? This is a woman who had the nerve to organize a greatest hits package using the Dewey Decimal System (please see Tales of a Librarian for proof), and if the woman who's given us everything from "Silent All These Years" to "A Sorta Fairytale" doesn't have a Grammy, then what are we doing not protesting the fact that Sheryl Crow has nine?


2. PJ Harvey

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PJ Harvey has won an unprecedented two Mercury Prizes, rejiggered her stark musical stylings time and again, and successfully reinvented her image so many times over her two-decade career that it's hard to believe she's not often described as Madonna's gritty, art-school cousin. If she's not wailing about a botched abortion in her classic '95 jam "Down By The Water," she's toasting New York on her brilliant Stories From The City, Stories From the Sea album or exploring Victorian stoicism on 2006's chilling White Chalk. How is it possible that this fabulous original has zero Grammy awards? Did I mention who she beat out last year for that Mercury Prize? None other than the Grammys' reigning queen Adele. Yeah. Woah.


1. Bjork

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There are geniuses, and then there is Bjork, the undisputed champ of unpredictable style transformations, technological breakthroughs in music, and a completely enigmatic image. When has this woman been anything less than a staggering, life-giving anomaly in music? From Debut through Post, Homogenic, Vespertine, Medulla, and her latest Grammy-nominated work Biophilia, Bjork has remained consummately committed to exploring her one-of-a-kind vision through some of the most fascinating recordings of our time. Listen to that percussion in "Joga." That tribal creepiness in "Human Behaviour." The lovely sentiment of "I've Seen It All." The cinematic grandeur of "Oceania." To make her Grammy-less situation even worse, her unforgettable music videos have garnered four separate nominations without a win. Ugh! There's definitely, definitely, definitely no logic to Grammy behaviour.

Our colleagues over at MTV.com have you covered on Sunday with a live Grammy red carpet stream...

FIND OUT EVERYTHING GRAMMYS AND GET LIVE REPORTS FROM SWAY ON THE RED CARPET HERE

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