Cam

Jannik Sinner
Tennis ginger

I did a post how these two dudes kissed and might be the first out active men’s tennis players but everyone is like “but it was all just a joke right?? 🤔🤔🤔”

Anyway. I went on IG against my better judgement and investigayted. Found a new post of these two. Reboul (on the right) is certainly getting comments assuming he told the truth (someone commented that they are a beautiful couple on this post.)

Even though Brovillé looks like he’s having a bad time in the photo (that death grip in his right hand!!) he seems to like the photo, lol, and left this comment. (Reboul was posting kiss emojis in posts about other people too.) Interestingly, Reboul also tagged photos of other people with “friend” which he didn’t for Brovillé. (Brovillé’s IG is now private.)

I don’t know. It’s interesting. I’m still inclined to think that they clearly explicitly came out, so let’s celebrate them coming out, and if we later learn it was a lie, then let’s be appalled then, but that hasn’t happened yet.

This also reminds me of two lower ranked athletes who played women’s tennis who were very couple-y and out on IG and very “Yay, lesbians!” but then for one of the women, there was a switch and everything was deleted, including all of the gay pride stuff, like she tried to recloset herself (and then down the road the other one started posting pictures of a new gf). I don’t know if that’s what happening here, because it seems like these guys have attracted too much attention at this point but… I don’t know. Like I think the situation can easily be much more complicated than “these guys are evil queerbaiters.”

(This post was going to be short and then it wasn’t)

I just read an article listing all of the out players at the US Open and instead of mentioning the French doubles player, Fabien Reboul (on the right), they repeated the “there’s never been a queer man playing actively in the ATP 😔 a shame, why won’t someone come out.” And this was with Outsports, so this is their territory.

Ever since Fabien Reboul made the post above in December 2022, it’s gotten this sort of “Did he just come out?? 🤔🤔🤔🤔” treatment. I find it very weird. (Apologies to Maxence Brovillé for not being part of this conversation, the dude he’s kissing, who is also a tennis player but much lower ranked.)

The media narrative seems to be “Is this just a weird French joke??”

I mean. Maybe. (Outsports’ article about the post, notes that they reached out to Reboul and Brovillé for confirmation and didn’t get a response.) They also say Reboul has made at least one jokey post in the past, but it didn’t look anything like this! It was not posed like this, it was a candid shot of him and someone else and it was captioned “When bae looks at you 👀.” It was a silly caption for a photo he otherwise had and it was clearly a joke.

I was going to go on about how like… the media sometimes acts like labels matter more than queer people doing queer stuff. Like to me a dude kissing another dude in public has just come out, and it’s not worth being like “he’s straight until we hear a label.” Then I remembered they’re French and I don’t understand their kissing culture. But my guess would be that even if these guys are doing the French “bise,” this definitely looks like a romantic kiss and not that?? Even if their lips aren’t touching in this precise frame captured in the photo (which some argue) like…? They’re still Up In There.

I don’t know. To me this looks like a standard relationship announcement post. I think the “I didn’t fall in love with you, your love pushed me” is trying to be a “falling” pun of some type—the meaning here isn’t “I’m not in love,” its something like “I’m in love with you because you won me over.”

Like a man and a woman can’t stand nearby each other in a photo on Instagram without it being read as a relationship announcement post, meanwhile apparently two dudes can’t post about being in love without getting a skeptical response. I don’t know. I feel like there’s weird gatekeepy-ness here. Like “you don’t get to be in the club until you’ve submitted your label and your ‘experience in the closet’ narrative to the board for approval.” I think we should herald Fabien Reboul as the great first out active ATP player (and also Brovillé I guess) and if this was all a dumb French joke then we’ll throw egg on his face forever. But I don’t want to throw egg on his face Just In Case.

Also I think this is worth following up on?? Like… Reboul presumably has done several post match press conferences since December 2022. I know he’s mainly a doubles player and people don’t really care about doubles, but surely there’s been something? And really no one is like “Hey, some people are saying this post was a joke but it sure looks like a relationship announcement post, which would make you (and also Brovillé) a historic figure in queer men’s tennis.”

I remember Kasatkina kind of answered a question (from a non-tennis journalist I believe) about being LGBT in a way that people interpreted to be her coming out as bi, but then later when she explicitly came out as gay she said that she wished people had followed up and been asking. (Recently she said she wanted to play under the rainbow flag and also I love her.)

I don’t know. Meanwhile tennis journalists have no problem badgering players who have to return to live in Russia and Belarus to denounce the war, which like, I also want them to denounce the war, but I don’t really want these athletes to have to worry about their families back at home in order for people in the US to think of them as “one of the good ones.” So… it’s not like tennis journalists are afraid of conflict?? I don’t know what’s happening.

(I need to look into how French media is covering this. And also log into Instagram myself and check out these posts. Ugh I hate logging into Instagram, lol.)

The French Open (Roland Garros) has started! Here's a field guide of all of the gays* who are playing!

(*Some players haven't specified a label but have come out as having a partner of the same gender. There are currently no out bi active players that I know of.)

Daria Kasatkina (on the left) came out as bi in 2021 and then clarified that she is a lesbian in 2022. She is a Russian player who has bravely not only come out but also condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. She's an hero and a legend. 🌟 She is currently ranked number nine in singles and had her best-ever grand slam result at Roland Garros last year, reaching the semi-finals, so there's hope that she'll get a great result again this year! Her girlfriend is ice skater Natalia Zabiiako.

Aliona Bolsova is a Spanish player who isn't tagged as queer on her Wikipedia page, but she's posted about a girlfriend on Instagram and also has this sticker on her phone!

Bolsova is ranked at number 71 right now--she won two qualifying matches but lost the third she needed to make the French Open main draw, but due to another player withdrawal, she was advanced to first round of the French Open and then went on to win the match!

The next highest ranked gay singles player is Alison Van Uytvanck, who has been away from play since February due to a back injury. Get better soon!

Nadia Podoroska is an Argentinian player who came out in 2022. She is engaged to another Argentinian player, Guillermina Naya. 🎉 Podoroska is ranked 103, mostly because she's been away from the tour due to injuries. But she's back, and her best result at the French Open was a semi-final result in 2020! She's certainly one to watch.

Edit: Since I originally wrote this Podoroska lost. 😔 I wasn't fast enough!!

Doubles is always very gay, and there's several other gay players over in doubles!

Blazing beacon of butchness Demi Schuurs (right) has been a top-ranked doubles player for years, currently ranked number 16. The Dutch player has collected sixteen doubles trophies over the years, and has had a lot of great results at grand slams, including a semi-final result at the Austalian Open and a collection of quarterfinal results at Wimbledon and the US Open. She's been playing with Desirae Krawczyk (left) since 2022, and they're could certainly go far.

Belgian Greet Minnen (left) came out in 2019, and has been playing great recently--she's picked up two singles titles and two doubles titles so far just this year. Unfortunately, after two commanding qualifying matches, she lost in the third, so she's didn't make the singles main draw, but she is slated to play doubles with Anna Bondár (right).

You may be asking--hey, wait, aren't these all women? Where are the guys? I have the same question! But this French Open is historic because it is the very first edition of the event to have an openly queer player competing in men's tennis: France's own Fabien Reboul (left).

He came out in late 2022, making him and boyfriend Maxence Broville the very first openly LGBTQIA players to come out while actively playing in the ATP (men's tennis). Which is wild that it took that long, especially since on the women's side, that threshold was crossed by Billie Jean King in 1981. But either way, glad some men are out now! Reboul is ranked 46 in doubles, and he's playing with Sadio Doumbia (right).

It's definitely possible that there are other out LGBTQIA players who are at the French Open--there's hundreds of players there, and the tennis media tends to focus on the top players, meaning that some players may have come out and no one spread the word (like how Bolsova came out on Instagram and no one seems to have asked any follow-up questions or updated her Wikipedia page.) This is extra complicated because the players are from all over the world, so, for example, a player may have come out in their own language to their local media or on a podcast or something, and the English-speaking media didn't notice.

In conclusion, it's going to be a very gay French Open, and for that I'm happy. 🏳️‍🌈