LZ Granderson: The Sports World Is (Slowly) Becoming More Inclusive
LZ Granderson was one of the co-hosts of SportsNation on ESPN when he married his husband, Steve Huesing, and while it seems rather unextraordinary today, it was groundbreaking to have an EPSN host, a Black, gay man, share pictures and stories on-air about his wedding to another man."I really don't recall anyone else at ESPN who married their same-sex partner having those pictures up on the network prior to that day," Granderson says. "I had to believe that there was a queer kid out there working in a bar, maybe not even having the volume on, glancing up and seeing that on ESPN.
I know what that would've done for me." As more athletes come out of the closet in recent years — Carl Nassib is the most recent high-profile example in the NFL — Granderson notes a real change in how these stories are covered.
Seemingly gone are the questions that Granderson encountered at the start of his career about what would happen if a gay man was ever to enter a locker room.
The vast majority of the coverage by those at EPSN and other mainstream outlets when it comes to queer athletes is celebratory, especially when it comes to the WNBA and the Women's National Soccer Team.
