Boston Herald columnist Steve Buckley: "I'm gay."

For the folks who think this column is self-serving or out of bounds because it's not offering some stated expertise, I think your preference for a certain type of columnist or column is blinding you a bit.

That's fine if you like your columnists to stick to certain topics and not stray; don't read the other columns, then. But to try attach motives to a column or invalidate it as a worthy column is unfair to me. For one thing, not everyone thinks like you do. Plenty of readers enjoy these columns more than the so-called expert columns, including me. Those expert columns usually offer predictions or why a coach should be fired and bore the living crap out of me. I think most of the time they suck. So I don't read them.

I don't think columns like this are self-serving at all, depending on how they're done and this one was done well. I think, when done right, these columns take a writer's experience and put them out there for other folks to relate to in some way. I think that's more selfless than self-serving. A person is putting their experiences out there and, especially in this instance, I think it does take bravery. I may not care that Buckley is gay, but I sure as hell care that he had the courage to write this column, knowing it would help some of his readers.

Just because folks around the person know he's out doesn't mean anyone else does and, as several of us have said on here, it's a major social issue. Ignoring that fact leaves you with a flawed criticism. As does worrying about negative reaction from readers and/or folks with which Buckley has to work.

How would this possibly taint his work? Because bigots might have a problem with it? Because people might ignorantly lump him in with other homosexuals? None of those things should be a concern to Buckley unless you're OK with blaming the victim of ignorance.

As far as the Lupica type references, I can see that point more, but again, if you look at a column as a conversation with readers, and it's a Sunday notes column, it's not as bad to me. Granted, if anyone does this in a self-serving way, it's Lupica, I'll definitely give you that.

 

FWIW - the column did not appear in the sports section.

Just to clarify for some who may have made that assumption.

 

That does change things a bit.

 

Buckley makes it obvious that even though his mother may have been a catalyst for telling people that he struggled to actually go out and do it for some time. Could it be that something (or maybe I should say someone) in his life made it a necessity?

Could he maybe have had a serious significant other that challenged him to be open about his relationship and stop avoiding the issue, or hiding one part of his life from the other? I knew some people in the closet who came to that realization, and some who are still going to extraordinary lengths to hide who they are.