Published: March 10, 2009
Bill Konigsberg is an author and award-winning sportswriter who has written for The Associated Press, ESPN.com, Outsports.com and Out magazine. He has covered the New York Mets, and his fantasy baseball column has appeared in papers across the country, from the New York Daily News to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He spent three years working for ESPN, and in 2002 he won a GLAAD Media Award for his article “Sports World Still a Struggle for Gays”. His debut novel, Out of the Pocket, made the Indie Next list for fall 2008. His second novel, tentatively titled Not Exactly Hank, is about the impact of homophobia on straight kids.
PG: Out of the Pocket is getting some good reviews and selling well. You must be very happy about how it is being received. How did you decide to write a “young adult” novel about a gay football player?
BK: I am thrilled with the response to the novel to this point. When I wrote it, I had no idea what type of response it would get, and to have the response exceed my expectations is quite a gift. It certainly feels great every time I get an e-mail from a reader, telling me how much the novel meant to them. I didn’t know at first that what I had was a young adult novel idea. I had written a short story about a gay high school football player in 2002, when I got to graduate school at Arizona State, and kept the idea in my head. When I decided to start writing a novel, it was a natural fit because these issues are so close to my heart. While I wasn’t a football player – let alone a good one – in high school, I was an athlete and did have to figure out how to be both gay and athletic. My solution at the time was to stop playing baseball. Luckily, my character didn’t need to make the same decision.
As it happened, I took a young adult literature class just as I was starting to write, and that made it pretty clear to me that what I had was, by definition, a young adult novel. Good timing, I guess.
PG: How did you “research” the book? Did you talk to any gay high school athletes?
BK: I talked to high school athletes by having a “roundtable discussion” about the issue with six football players from my alma mater in Riverdale, N.Y. With a digital recorder running, we sat for about 90 minutes and talked about all of these issues. It was a fascinating conversation, because on the one hand I could see how things had improved since I was in high school, 20 years ago. The kids were comfortable talking about gay issues in a way I was unfamiliar with at their age. On the other hand, some of the responses were pretty severe. One of the kids said he’d kill his best friend if his best friend came out as gay. When asked to expound, it seemed to me he was talking about feeling betrayed. He lacked the language to say it more succinctly and in a less charged way. I put a lot of those feelings of betrayal in the novel, which definitely delves into the team dynamic. I am a believer in raising questions rather than answering them in my work, but it is my belief that the homophobia that is rampant in our society victimizes everyone – gay and straight. The kid who said that comment is, to me, a victim of the insanely rigid roles he’s learned about how a man is supposed to behave. I don’t think this is inborn; it’s learned behavior. But anyway, that was a big part of my research. So was covering high school football games for several years, while in Denver and Phoenix.
PG: Did you play high school sports? Are any parts of the book autobiographical?
BK: Yes, I played baseball. I loved the sport ever since I was a little kid, and I was a serviceable left-handed pitcher in my day. But when my senior year came around, I decided to come out of the closet, and I couldn’t reconcile being gay and being an athlete. I wasn’t aware of any role models at the time. So I quit the team and hid out in the drama club. That was a place I knew I would find acceptance, and I did. I am amazed at how many people have similar stories. I’ve met so many people touring with this book and so many tell similar stories. As for autobiographical, the major thing Bobby and I have in common is a very public coming out. That part of the book definitely relates to my own coming out, at ESPN.com. But otherwise, Bobby is a very distinctly different person than I am.
PG: I know you have been on tour speaking about the book. How have audiences responded to the book? Do you have any particular stories you can share?
BK: The audiences have been wonderful. Everybody seems to want to talk about this issue, especially those people who are not directly involved, those who aren’t gay athletes.
PG: In particular, how have high school athletes responded? What kinds of questions and comments do they have? How do they think their teams would respond to a Bobby Framingham on their teams?
BK: I was at a school last week, and the entire football team showed up to an optional Q&A session. They were so interesting, had such engaging questions and seemed really interested and open to thinking about this. Yes, it seemed as if they were talking about something they didn’t really understand, but I was impressed by their willingness to listen and ask informed questions. That school, Fieldston, located in Riverdale, N.Y., seemed particularly ready to deal with a Bobby Framingham. So did the high school in Wellesley, Mass., although not too many of the “jock” kids came around to talk while I was there. Obviously, those schools are more progressive.
I had a very interesting discussion with the sports coaches at Macalester College, which may be the most liberal place on earth. They really wanted to know what they could do to make things better for LGBT athletes. I did my best to help them out. I know there was a football player who was struggling with this issue, and the football coach seemed very interested in doing the right thing.
PG: How have gay athletes responded to the book, especially young athletes?
BK: Gay athletes have especially related to the book. What’s cool to me is how they seem to think of Bobby as a real person. I suppose it’s hard, as Bobby’s creator, to let him go and let people create a real existence for him. I’ve struggled with that for some reason. But they love Bobby.
PG: How have parents responded to the book, especially parents with a gay child?
BK: I have met several parents with gay kids who have been thankful for the book because they think it will help their children feel more accepted. Obviously, that’s what I wanted, and it’s been nice to see that echoed in the reactions of the parents.
PG: This book is about the experiences of a young gay man. How do you see the experiences of young gay male athletes differing from the experiences of young lesbian athletes?
BK: The experiences of young gay male athletes and young lesbian athletes are fairly different. While both have to deal with homophobia, it seems to me the main issues here have to do with masculinity. For gay men, that means dealing with the stereotype that they are not “macho” enough to be athletic. For women, it often means fighting the stereotype that they must be gay if they are playing sports. For the young women I’ve met, it seems like they are constantly fighting expectations on all sides. Women athletes are given absurd outfits made to sexualize and feminize, and any woman who balks at the way they are made to dress is obviously a lesbian. Except that it isn’t true. I sense a lot of frustration in women about the gender stereotypes they are expected to embrace. Not that these young female athletes have it particularly easier than their male counterparts. It’s just different. Men seem to have to push back on the one obvious side, the issue of masculinity. Women seem squeezed by all the expectations coming from all the different angles.