Recently we’ve noticed a normalised level of homophobia in online spaces related to the NBA. This isn’t surprising – historically the league, and professional sports in general, has had issues with homophobia.
In 2007, John Amaechi became the first NBA player to come out as gay. Over the coming season, several NBA players would be asked for their reactions, and while some of them were supportive, others were overtly homophobic.
“You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States.”– Tim Hardaway
“With teammates you have to be trustworthy, and if you’re gay and you’re not admitting that you are, then you are not trustworthy” – Lebron James
“For real? He’s gay for real? Nowadays it’s proven that people can live double lives. I watch a lot of TV, so I see a lot of sick perverted stuff about married men running around with gay guys and all types of foolishness.” – Steven Hunter
These quotes are all from NBA players in reaction to John Amaechi coming out. Especially disappointing is that these remarks came from all-stars with huge platforms in Lebron James and Tim Hardaway. Lebron equated being closeted with being untrustworthy and Tim Hardaway explicitly said he doesn’t “like gay people … I am homophobic”.
This culture has continued today. In 2022, Anthony Edwards (a current all-star) posted a homophobic video on his Instagram where he filmed a gay couple in public and could be heard saying, “look at these queer a** n***ers”. While he did apologise and pay a fine to the NBA, the fact he felt comfortable posting it at all speaks to the culture behind the scenes.
Jason Collins is another NBA player who came out as gay. In 2023, he spoke about his experiences with homophobia while playing:
“I’d hear a lot of mean-spirited, homophobic comments, and I’d also hear comments that were just dumb. A lot of the language that’s used to put others down in the sports world is either sexist or homophobic.”
This suggests that it’s not just isolated incidents – in NBA locker rooms homophobic language, even if it isn’t intended to be homophobic, is relatively normalised.
This extends to NBA media as well. Inside the NBA is a wildly popular a companion show to NBA games. On the show a notable part of the humour is based on Charles Barkley pantomiming or speaking in a way that is suggestive of gay sexual acts.
What’s interesting here is that Barkley is actually a staunch ally to the LGBTQ+ community; he’s spoken out for them several times. This demonstrates that even those who do not perceive themselves as homophobic still feel comfortable making jokes about homosexuality.
This briefing looks at different kinds of anti-LGBTQ+ hate in NBA spaces on a range of different social media platforms. It starts with the most borderline and socially acceptable cases, and slowly becomes more extreme. Overall, we demonstrate a widespread issue with anti-LGBTQ sentiments in these spaces online.
TikTok
Many NBA fans feel comfortable mocking players who act effeminately. Karl-Anthony Towns is an NBA all-star for the New York Knicks who has been the subject of ‘zesty’ memes due to his high-pitched voice. ‘Zesty’ is a slang term that’s been used online to call people gay, similar to the term “sus”.
On TikTok, there are several videos and comments calling Town’s ‘zesty’ or ‘sus’ in an effort to be comedic. The comments below are examples of this, while another says “we’re going back to just calling it straight up gay”.
While most of the commenters probably wouldn’t view themselves as homophobic and just see these memes as light teasing, a small proportion become more emboldened towards overt homophobia. On a TikTok post about gay NBA player Jason Collins getting married, a significant amount of the comments were deeply homophobic. The following comment, which got over 500 likes, says “This is why the world needs Christ”. This was a relatively common refrain in the comments section of the video– many users invoked religious dialogue – “people have free will to sin”, “repent and come to christ”, “they are going to hell”.
Another commenter described being gay as a “mental illness”, saying “they [gay people] are always possessed by demons that make them think its normal”.
Youtube
On YouTube, the comment sections of NBA content that had any relation to the LGBTQ+ community often contained homophobia.
In the comment section of an ESPN video about Anthony Edwards apologising for homophobic remarks he posted on Instagram, several commenters defend Edwards’ remarks and imply that there was little, if anything, wrong with them.
Below we can see the comments on a Youtube video which features homophobic comments from former NBA all-star Gilbert Arenas. Various comments liken LGBTQ+ people to paedophiles, while another says they should “stay in [their] world”.
In Australia
This homophobia has also extended to online spaces in Australia. The comment sections on Sky News Australia videos about the NBL (Australia’s professional basketball league) introducing a ‘Pride Round’ – where players can opt to wear jerseys featuring a pride logo – were exceptionally homophobic. Commenters referred to the flag as the “FLAG of the JUDGED” and to the LGBTQ+ community as a “cult movement”.
Below we see another commentator equating the introduction of the Pride Round to promoting “grooming and deviants”, once again implying LGBTQ+ people are paedophiles.
On Instagram, a big trend I’ve noticed is that on any post by the NBA or NBA teams endorsing Pride month or LGBTQ+ causes, the comments are almost unanimously homophobic. All of the screenshots in this section are of posts from various NBA accounts endorsing pride month.
On the below posts, most commenters express anger that NBA teams would endorse Pride month. Users commented “No” and “Delete Bro”, rejecting the notion of Pride month.
Others claim that “This is why we lost in the playoffs”, and that “shit like this […] ruins sports”.
One user writes “Ewfuck this shit”, while another says “I lost the respect of this fucking pagee”.
On the following post from the Lakers’ instragram account, one user comments “aint no way u guys be supporting disappointments”.
These are just a small snippet from comments sections that are largely united in their homophobia – illustrating the wide support for anti-LGBTQ+ positions among NBA fans on Instagram. This communicates to gay fans that NBA fandom is not a welcoming space and erodes support for LGBTQ+ allies.
Gab and Bitchute
Gab and Bitchute are fringe social media platforms that allow hate speech under the guise of protecting free speech. As a result, hateful content tends to be much more extreme.
On these platforms we noted transphobic hate as well as homophobia. This next post is an example of “transvestigation”, a conspiratorial practice of accusing prominent figures of being trans (click here for a more in-depth analysis). This practice is deeply transphobic and usually arises from a rigid adherence to traditional gender norms – a mindset that has traditionally also motivated homophobia. In this case – a poster intensely scrutinises WNBA player Brittney Griner’s physical features and deems her not feminine enough to be a woman. The poster also uses a homophobic slur, and the comments are unanimously in agreement.
We found multiple examples of “transvestigation” content focusing on WNBA athletes. These videos received thousands of views, had significantly positive like to dislike ratios and comment sections that were unanimous in agreeing with these transphobic theories.
This poster uses almost every racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, antisemitic dog whistle there is. They imply there is a grand Jewish conspiracy that uses professional sports as a distraction. They also use racist and homophobic slurs to denigrate athletes and fans.
Conclusion
Taken as a whole, it’s clear that homophobia is relatively normalised in NBA spaces online. Psychological research has found that exposure to hate speech, both online and offline, has significant negative impacts on the mental and physical wellbeing of LGBTQ+ people (Chae et al., 2014; Keighley, 2022; Lewis et al., 2006; Ștefăniță & Buf, 2021; Taylor et al., 2007; Wypych & Bilewicz, 2024; Zochniak et al., 2023).
Of course, the level of severity differs across platforms – with Gab and Bitchute being especially hateful. However, even the ‘zesty’ jokes on TikTok can be harmful. One study found that participants who viewed disparagement humour (humour that denigrates a specific group) about gay men began to view prejudice against gay men as more acceptable (Mendiburo-Seguel & Ford, 2023). As fans of the NBA, it would be worthwhile to keep this in mind when engaging with content like ‘zesty’ jokes that might not seem acceptable. Fans making ‘zesty’ jokes and Charles Barkley pantomiming gay sexual acts doesn’t necessarily mean they are homophobes, but it can promote an environment that normalises homophobia and leads a fraction of viewers to more extreme views. The transition from expressing hateful jokes, to holding genuinely extremist attitudes, is something that we have documented in the past, and which has the potential to have devastating consequences.
If you’re especially motivated, you might want to learn about counter-speech – which involves responding to hate speech with positive, corrective messages (Wachs et al., 2024). There are two possible benefits here – firstly, the original hate commenter might change their view and, secondly, visible counter-speech on homophobic content can show LGBTQ+ NBA fans that these hateful beliefs are not unanimous in NBA fandom and that there is a portion of the community that would welcome them.
References
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Keighley, R. (2022). Hate Hurts: Exploring the Impact of Online Hate on LGBTQ+ Young People. Women & Criminal Justice, 32(1–2), 29–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/08974454.2021.1988034
Lewis, T. T., Everson-Rose, S. A., Powell, L. H., Matthews, K. A., Brown, C., Karavolos, K., Sutton-Tyrrell, K., Jacobs, E., & Wesley, D. (2006). Chronic Exposure to Everyday Discrimination and Coronary Artery Calcification in African-American Women: The SWAN Heart Study. Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine, 68(3). https://journals.lww.com/bsam/fulltext/2006/05000/chronic_exposure_to_everyday_discrimination_and.2.aspx
Mendiburo-Seguel, A., & Ford, T. E. (2023). The effect of disparagement humor on the acceptability of prejudice. Current Psychology, 42(19), 16222–16233. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00354-2
Ștefăniță, O., & Buf, D.-M. (2021). Hate Speech in Social Media and Its Effects on the LGBTQ+ Community: A Review of the Current Research. Romanian Journal of Communication & Public Relations, 23(1), 47–55. SocINDEX with Full Text.
Taylor, T. R., Williams, C. D., Makambi, K. H., Mouton, C., Harrell, J. P., Cozier, Y., Palmer, J. R., Rosenberg, L., & Adams-Campbell, L. L. (2007). Racial Discrimination and Breast Cancer Incidence in US Black Women: The Black Women’s Health Study. American Journal of Epidemiology, 166(1), 46–54. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwm056
Wachs, S., Wright, M. F., & Gámez-Guadix, M. (2024). From hate speech to HateLess. The effectiveness of a prevention program on adolescents’ online hate speech involvement. Computers in Human Behavior, 157, 108250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2024.108250
Wypych, M., & Bilewicz, M. (2024). Psychological toll of hate speech: The role of acculturation stress in the effects of exposure to ethnic slurs on mental health among Ukrainian immigrants in Poland. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 30(1), 35–44. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000522
Zochniak, K., Lewicka, O., Wybrańska, Z., & Bilewicz, M. (2023). Homophobic Hate Speech Affects Well-Being of Highly Identified LGBTQ+ People. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 42(4), 453–463. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X231174569