| Book Review - Inside Out: Straight Talk from a Gay Jock |
Inside Out: Straight Talk from a Gay JockBy Mark Tewksbury
This disclosure didn’t come without pain and turmoil, as we learn about how he lost a six-figure contract when his agent pronounced: “Your tour has been cancelled because they think you are too gay.” As a boy, Mark would go through his grandma’s closest with her and try on wigs and makeup. He talks about his fascination with Barbie, and how his dad would hit him with a wooden spoon when he caught Mark playing with dolls. These are brave admissions for an athlete. After he comes out, Tewksbury’s confidence rises and we see him challenging homophobia and the corruption of Olympic officials as he gives as a glimpse inside their world, reserving criticism for former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch (“He really gave me the creeps”) and describing friction with former Canadian Olympic Committee president, the late Carol Anne Letheren, who tried to convince Mark to hide his sexuality. Tewksbury’s emotional highs and lows make for compelling reading, revealing a man tortured and exalted at times in his life. You are left wondering whether another gay athlete will follow Tewksbury’s lead, and Tewksbury wonders himself. “For me it was hard to believe that there were still no openly gay football, baseball, basketball, hockey or soccer players playing on professional teams.” — Curtis Rush September/October 2011 |
Rarely has an athlete been so candid as Olympic champion swimmer Mark Tewksbury. Little in his book is about swimming. It’s a revealing portrait of a gay man trying to hide his sexuality then undergoing a metamorphosis when he goes public in 1998.