By BHN - Alexandria Marie
In this episode, BHN news anchor, Alexandria Marie, discusses professional tennis player Coco Guaff's success, the SWAC football brawl investigation, discrimination against LGBTQ athletes, and HBCU football player Byron Perkins living his truth.
The News Stories
Source: Coco Gauff in D/FW Metroplex For Women’s Tennis Association finals (Texas Metro News)
Coco Guaff is living the dream as a professional tennis player and being an inspiration to young black girls pursuing professional sports. The 18-year-old will make her debut at the prestigious season-ending WTA tournament and will be the youngest to do so since Maria Sharpova and will be competing in both singles and doubles. Guaff and her partner Pegula will also be the first Americans to feature at the WTA finals in both singles and doubles since Serena and Venus Williams in 2009.
The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) has decided to conduct a full investigation into the altercation between Southern University and Prairie View. After the game, Southern University players decided to stomp on Prairie View’s infield logo which was the catalyst for a massive fight between both teams. The investigation will involve reviewing the content and depicting which players were involved, but it is taking longer than expected due to the recording being low quality and the ability to see jersey numbers has been a struggle.
The LGBTQ community has seen a great deal of advancement and acceptance over the past 10 years, however the sports environment remains hostile and homophobic and transphobia. As professional athletes like soccer player Tierna Davidson and gymnast Danell Leyva, have taken the stand on coming out the closet, there are still reports of bullying and abuse.
Feature Story:
Byron Perkins is the first HBCU football player to come out as gay. Perkins made the announcement on his Instagram platform stating, “I’ve decided that I’m going to make change, and stop running away from myself. I’m gay. Let it be known that this is not a ‘decision’ or a ‘choice.’ Yes, this is who I am, this is who I’ve been, and this is who I’m going to be.” Seeing a young black man in a masculine focused sport is a step forward in making changes in treatment towards LGBTQ athletes in the black community.