Softball: External stereotypes fuel an internal insecurity about sexuality and self

ESPN has a moving story about professional softball player and college coach Lauren Lappin:

“Lappin is also gay, having come out publicly before the 2008 Olympics, a few years after she came to terms with her sexuality and stopped trying to live the role she felt was expected of her in a sport in which external stereotypes fuel an internal insecurity about sexuality and self.

Even on National Coming Out Day, plenty of people will suggest a gay player or coach is a non-story in softball, a sport undeniably linked with lesbian stereotypes in popular culture. How prevalent those stereotypes remain came to the forefront in the recent confirmation process of Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, when the circulation of a photo of the unmarried Kagan playing softball set off a round of insinuations and jokes—complete with smirks, sarcasm and rhetorical winks—about her sexual orientation. But the truth, particularly at the highest level of the college game in which Lappin circulates, is complicated.”