Photo by George Lange/TBSWeeks before Newport Beach millionaires Glen and Mindy Stearns won prize money they didn't need on TBS' recent The Real Gilligan's Island, the show's otherOrange Countian, Eric “Gumby” Anderson, was booted before he had a chance to school you on gay equality as he had planned.
Anderson is the ex-Huntington High track coach, one of whose runners, star Jerryme Negrete, was brutally beaten 11 years ago by a football player after Anderson revealed he was gay.
The coach-turned-professor was exiled before he could educate the TBS audience on gay issues, but the Huntington Beach native may find an audience in publishing. Anderson's second book, In the Game: Gay Athletes and the Cult of Masculinity, came out earlier this month.
“My intent is not to be a big movie star,” says Anderson, now a sociology professor for State University of New York at Stony Brook. “[But if I had] the opportunity to make the ultimate classroom, I would certainly take it.”
OC Weekly: How did you convince the TBS casting directors you were the Professor they were looking for?
Eric Anderson: I convinced them that the real professor was gay. He had all the sensibility of a gay male in the closet. He buried himself in his books as a reason for not having a heterosexual social life. He never took any chances with Mary Ann or Ginger. He was a snappy dresser. What can we say?
Some have called you a gay-rights activist. Did you have any political reasons for being on the show?
I wanted to do it predominately for political purposes. Not only are gays artists and politicians, but we are also professors and intellects.
Because you were second to leave the island, you never responded to millionaire Donna Beavens' comment that if gay men have sex, “Don't you think there are people out there having sex with snakes?” What would you have said to her and to viewers?
We aren't going away, so if you're uncomfortable with us, you're either going to live in consistent discomfort or you'll have to change your attitude and learn to love us.
How is your life different now that you live in Manhattan?
It's the first time in my life that I'm not gay. If I walk through the streets of Orange County holding my boyfriend's hand, people see us. They turn to their friends and say something. In Manhattan, they don't even see us because it's not even an issue.
Do you feel like a celebrity now that you've been on national TV?
I received maybe five phone calls and 15 or 20 e-mails. The other day, I walked to Stony Brook, and nobody recognized me. I went to a club in Manhattan last night with [a bunch of] gay guys, and nobody recognized me. It's bizarre because it feels like only 15 [people watched the show].
What inspired you to write your latest book?
I gave a talk at Huntington High the other day . . . and I was talking about how there is a very high rate of homosexuality on football teams, and the football players there and a bunch of other people were like, “No, impossible, we're the real men. We're the real athletes. We can't be gay.” That attitude is what led me to do the research.
Why do you refer to masculinity as a cult?
The institutional norms around it are so strong that if you violate it, you get ostracized. You have to act tough all the time. You have to suck it up. You have to take one for the team, and if you don't, you get called an inferior male. You get called a pussy, a wuss, and worst of all, you get called a fag.
Of the athletes you interviewed, how many were ostracized and/or beaten?
The reality is that homophobia has decreased so much in youth culture in the past few years that much of that has transpired onto the game of sport. And so really what we find is that when an athlete comes out, [there is] much more acceptance than I had ever thought there would be. So the big “holy cow” of the story is not athletes that got beat up because none of them did and not that athletes were ostracized . . . but the story after story after story of “Yeah, I came out, and I found myself somewhat accepted.”
IN THE GAME: GAY ATHLETES AND THE CULT OF MASCULINITY BY ERIC ANDERSON; SUNY PRESS; WWW.THEGAYPROFESSOR.COM. PAPERBACK, 208 PAGES, $18.95.
