Did homophobia lead Aaron Hernandez to murder?

Photo: AP Photo/Elise Amendola, Pool, File

As someone who spent most of his childhood living in Europe, American football was never something I followed closely. Even upon my return to the U.S. as an adult, it was never something I was particularly invested in or gave much attention to.

It was only as I grew into my role as a gay activist that I became interested in the way that the culture of sport ties in with the LGBTQ community and why there has always been such a lack of openly LGBTQ players in football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and other sports.

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I learned that this scarcity speaks to something deep about the culture of homophobia and toxic masculinity that exists not only in sports but in American society in general. It’s the same sort of machismo, driven by insecurity among many men in our country that helped result in the election of someone like Donald Trump.

I remember watching CNN the morning the news broke regarding the arrest of New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez back in 2013. He was a suspect in the murder of his fiancee Shayanna’s sister’s boyfriend, Odin Lloyd. I was of course horrified and saddened by the story, but beyond that didn’t take much notice.

In 2017, however, the story came back into my realm of consciousness when I read online that Hernandez had died of suicide in prison and that this occurred just days after a news report that Hernandez was gay. Perhaps he killed himself because the news of his sexuality was beginning to leak out?

In the months and years since then, more information has gradually come out. Hernandez apparently had a….

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