A Man You Admire

[Samuelx]

I have a question for you. Tell us about one man whom you admire and really feel glad you met.


For me, that man is A.C. of a small town near Boston, MA. He was a football coach for over 30 years at that high school. He is one of those old-school masculine men that are so rare. The kind you see guys in movies try to emulate. He's like Clint Eastwood or something. I recall being a high school kid just trying to play football and having a tough time ( some of the other guys didn't like me). Also, I was just beginning to discover my feelings for girls...and boys. Yeah, I was having a tough time.


My friend Hector had an even tougher time. He's the son of a macho Latino businessman. Hector was gay. He confided in me. I told him about my secret and he shared his. We were teammates and good friends. Hector was a big, tough guy. He was friggin huge !!! The meanest linebacker on the planet ! NFL guys can't match him in toughness. Yet he was gay.


Anyway, my school was quite homophobic, in spite of the presence of the Gay-Straight Alliance and its many members. Hector told me that he wanted to come out to Coach, right before a big championship game. That sucked ! Why did he have to tell coach ? I was worried. Coach is a very old-school kind of man. Would he understand ? Well, Hector went up and told him anyway. I waited in the background, nervous as hell.


Well, I gathered up my courage and came close enough to hear Coach say : "Well, Hector, what does your being gay have to do with your playing football ?" Hector replied : "Well, nothing, sir. It's just who I am."
Coach said : "Don't sweat it, son. Now get back in the game !!!!"


Hector returned to the game with a smile on his face. By the way, my high school won the state championship in football that season. I was part of the team and so was Hector !!!! Imagine, a gay Latino kid and a bisexual Black guy were part of an all-American state championship football team !!!


I felt especially proud of Coach for how he reacted to what Hector told him. Afterwards, Coach told all the guys on the team not to say any homophobic jokes. He didn't say why. He didn't look at Hector or at me. He just said that queer jokes were stupid and he wouldn't tolerate them. Also, any player who said one would get coach's size twelve boot up his...well, you know.


Until the day that I die, I will consider Coach to be a GREAT man.


Have you ever met anyone like that ?

 

[DarkAurora]

I've met people before who you would stereotypically think are prejudice but when you actually get to know them, they're not.

 

[Nirvanadragones]

My husband! To be able to live with me he has to be pretty special!!

I have a question for you. Tell us about one man whom you admire and really feel glad you met.

 

[Wolfman1982]

I admire my father, since he is a very cool guy, and doesn´t care if people are straight bi or gay, to him they just have to behave, and that is it really .

 

[do_not_shiver]

I'd like to nominate my two last crushes.

The first one, a guy of my age(18-19). Let's call him Mr D. After I had made a whole mess about trying to show my emotions for him, and then finally over the phone telling him, he was VERY cool with it, and understood why I had been so weird lately. Well one guy, friend of us both who doesn't know of my different sexuality(still pondering myself, actually), he called my crush, and they discussed a letter I had written to D(anonymously), and then D told our friend that I sent it, "as a joke", because he KNEW I wasn't ready to tell everyone. Only bad thing is that what he did was so sweet, that knowing I can't have him, well, it sucks just a bit more. I still dream of the fun times we had, and I wish I'll see him sometime again.

My other crush was a one of my professors. He's in his mid 30's, and OH-SO hot. And fun, and caring, and all of that. I'd seriously die for this guy. Anyhow, after a long time of agony of being around him and not being able to do anything else but gaze at him, I wrote him a letter(anonymously, again). I gave him a e-mail address that he could respond too, and after 5 or so days, I get the sweetest, most caring letter I have EVER read. He told me he's proud of me being able to be who I am, and that he supports me in that, even though he doesn't know who I am. He told me that one should always try, but that he's straight, and in a relationship. He didn't need to know my name, because that might shake the student-professor relationship, and make it a bit ackward for us both. He then continued with wishing me luck for the rest of my "journey of life", and told me to take care.
I then had this "déja vu" of again people being so wonderful, that I get a bit more upset of loosing them.

But oh do I have respect for these two guys, they're SO different, but SO admirable. I wish the world would be filled with more of that kind of people.