Robbie Rogers: FIFA fails to support gays The next two World Cups will be held in two anti-LGBT countries, Russia and Qatar.

Robbie Rogers | USAToday

Two years ago when I came out publicly in a blog post that went viral, I just assumed that my life as a professional soccer player was over. For two reasons.

First, after living my entire life in the closet, I couldn't imagine I had the emotional wherewithal to deal with being in the spotlight as the only openly gay man in my sport. When you tie yourself in the knot of such a big lie for so long, it undermines your self-confidence and damages you in ways that take a long time to sort out.

I also couldn't imagine what it would be like going back into the locker room and facing my teammates. Given the things I'd heard them say over the years, I had reason to worry that I'd be ostracized. That's almost as bad as being rejected by your blood family. Well, maybe worse.

Turns out I was wrong. My self-imposed retirement lasted a whole four months. I underestimated my capacity to embrace the spotlight, especially since I didn't have to do it alone. Jason Collins and Michael Sam soon joined me. And the outpouring of support I received from former teammates, friends, coaches, soccer officials and total strangers in the U.S. and around the world proved to me that the problem was mostly my imagination, not my sport.

Nothing I feared has come to pass. I now play for the L.A. Galaxy. Last season we won the Major League Soccer Cup, the Super Bowl of soccer. While I'm the only openly gay guy in the locker room, it's totally normal. So normal, in fact, that sometimes I step back and think how weird it is.

A couple of times there have been negative comments from people in the stands, but only a couple of times and only in a whisper. Most often if there are comments, it's from gay fans who are only too happy to cheer on one of their own.

So why am I still the only one? It's a question I get all the time. I have no idea how many other gay men are playing in professional soccer, but for however many guys who are out there hiding, it's fear that's keeping them from being themselves. There's the personal fear of being rejected by your loved ones — a realistic fear for some. And for others, like me, totally blown out of proportion by our own imaginations.

But I don't think that's the primary reason that my fellow gay players are keeping the closet door locked. Given how high the stakes are in professional sports, it's not enough for closeted players to see what it's been like for me or to hear comments of LGBT ( lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) from high-profile players, from coaches, owners and even the heads of national soccer league officials from around the world.

They're going to need to hear and see a lot more from FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, before the atmosphere changes enough for more gay soccer players to stop hiding and simply be themselves.

FIFA is great at lofty rhetoric. They say their goal is improving the game of soccer "constantly and promot(ing) it globally in the light of its unifying, educational, cultural and humanitarian values, particularly through youth and development programs."

Those are wonderful ideals and its how I think of my sport and my place in it as a role model to young athletes. But FIFA doesn't live those words, not when they decide to hold the next two World Cups, the most widely watched sporting events in the world, in Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022, two countries that fall far short when it comes to humanitarian values, not to mention their seriously anti-LGBT values and crushing anti-gay laws.

If actions speak louder than words, then the message FIFA sends to gay athletes is painfully clear. Not only don't they have our backs, our lives don't matter. So for any gay soccer player who has hopes of playing for the U.S. National Team at the World Cup, being open about their sexuality could have real consequences when they set foot in countries with laws that could land them in jail.

My first memory of soccer is the 1994 World Cup with my dad. We attended the U.S. vs. Colombia game at the Rose Bowl. I can remember the colors, the smells and all of the excitement with tens of thousands of other soccer fans in the stands as we cheered on our national team. That experience at the World Cup ignited the firein me that made me think, "Someday, I'll play in the World Cup."

That seven-year-old's dream has yet to come true (I've gotten close). But for all the promising gay athletes out there with soccer dreams of their own, FIFA still gives them very good reasons to hide. And that's not my imagination.

Robbie Rogers plays Major League Soccer for the Los Angeles Galaxy. He is the only openly gay male athlete currently playing in one of the five major professional sports in the U.S. and is the author of Coming Out to Play .

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