Last week, Conner Mertens, a 19-year-old red-shirt freshman kicker for Willamette (Ore.) University football team told his coach that he is bisexual and that he has a boyfriend. And on Monday he announced it to the rest of the world in the name of helping and inspiring other LGBTI athletes, students, and people like him. According to outsports.com, no college football player in the United States at any level has come out publicly while still playing, until Mertens.
That’s all fine and good, but I have one quibble with Mertens. If he is gay and wants to help other people like him, why is he labeling himself “bisexual?” He is attracted to other men. He has a boyfriend. Why does he need this qualifier?
“Bisexual” seems to be a label that gay people apply to themselves when they are not fully comfortable with being gay. It is simply a more esoteric group and gives the impression that he doesn’t want to be labeled “gay." Why not be all-encompassing and just embrace your gayness? If you are going to make this statement with the “bisexual” safety net, why make it at all? And if he is uncomfortable with being gay, why should the rest of the populace feel any different?
While technically a student athlete, freshman redshirt kicker for a Division III team makes him the least relevant one on the planet.
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