Sportview: 'I'm gay. Now let's play golf'
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-03-23 10:21

Rosie Jones was 19 when she told her family she was a lesbian.

But it wasn't until some 25 years later, long after all her friends and most of her associates on the LPGA Tour already knew, that one of golf's steadiest performers made a point of telling the rest of the world. The reason she waited says almost as much about the climate in sports at the moment as it does about her.

Rosie Jones tees off on the fourth hole during the second round of the LPGA Tour Championship at Trump International Golf Club on Friday, Nov. 21, 2003, in West Palm Beach, Fla. [AP]

Already receding in her rearview mirror were Superstition Mountain north of Phoenix and the Safeway Classic, where earlier in the day, Jones finished tied for 13th place in the heat and wind of the desert. Another few hours down the road were Rancho Mirage, Calif., and the Kraft Nabisco Championship, where she will tee it up later this week in the LPGA's first major of the season.

"And so far," Jones said as she steered her 35-foot motor home westward along Interstate-10 in Arizona, "so good."

She made her formal announcement that morning in a first-person story in the sports section of the New York Times. Not coincidentally, Jones started out by explaining that she would play the Nabisco sporting the logo of a company called Olivia, which happens to be one of the world's largest travel services catering to lesbians.

"Inherent in this sponsorship," Jones wrote, "is my coming out."

It was almost as simple as it sounds. The fact is that Jones, who has won 13 times and eclipsed the $7 million career-earnings mark in 21 years on tour, now feels successful and mature enough to handle the public scrutiny that will inevitably follow her decision to go public. She isn't the first female athlete to do so, and she won't be the last. What makes the timing of her announcement noteworthy is that it was of her own choosing.

"I've never been in the closet," Jones said, "but I don't know if you're ever ready to take on the responsibility that goes along with something like this. I was a passenger of a few of their cruises and when the people at Olivia talked to me, I thought, 'Well, I'm already established, I'm financially secure, I've got a strong fan base and it's hard enough to get endorsements as it is.'

"Another thing that happened is that my father passed away about a year and a half ago now, and while he was comfortable with me, I'm not sure he would have been comfortable with everybody knowing.

"So it's kind of unique, I guess, because I'm not doing it to further a political agenda or a gay agenda and I don't see it as a human-rights issue, either, beyond Olivia having the right to choose somebody to market their product. And once I decided to represent them," she added, "any doubts about me were bound to disappear. So I figured I might as well say it."

The party scene at the Nabisco Championship was described in an infamous Sports Illustrated article in 1997 as a kind of "spring break for lesbians." It caused a great deal of consternation for LPGA officials back then.

But a half-dozen years later, it's proof of how deep tolerance or commerce (or both) have seeped into the fabric of our games that instead of being stigmatized, the Nabisco crowd is viewed by the sponsors, the LPGA and its players as just another target audience to sell hats, shirts and travel services to.

It won't make everybody happy and the added sponsorship won't make Jones much richer. But it will make her and some of her fellow players a whole lot more comfortable. There can't be much harm in that.

"A few players came up to me and said they really appreciate it," Jones said. "The one thing that concerned me all along was our fan base. I didn't want to disappoint anybody, and judging by the reception I got Sunday, I haven't. I want them to know that I'm the same person I was yesterday and if they loved me then, they should love me tomorrow."

Jones would like to think stepping forward would help other athletes facing a similar decision, but she stresses she did this for herself.

"It might open the door a little more, especially for younger players. But I never try and guess what's right for other people, what they would or should do. I'm sure there are other athletes out there in every other sport and they need to understand, it does make you vulnerable."

But only up to a point. Anybody who thinks all this soul-searching has dulled Jones' competitive edge should read the closing line of her story.

"To the rest of you," she wrote, "I say: 'Fine, I'm gay. Now let's go play golf.'"