And the Award for the Most Homophobic Sport Goes to....?

If there was ever any doubt that homophobia was alive and well in the wide world of sports, just take a look at the past two weeks. In the NFL there was Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson berating a Twitter follower with anti-gay language. In the NBA, Dallas Mavericks center Drew Gooden allegedly blasted a Los Angeles fan with some homophobic rhetoric. And in hockey, a minor league player has taken the sport to task for fostering a culture that supports homophobia and an overall prejudice against LGBT people.

Hey, at least no professional golfers said anything stupid this week.

Homophobia in sports is not late-breaking news. Athletes have been making a name for themselves by using seriously anti-gay rhetoric for years. There's former baseball player John Rocker's tirade about having to ride the New York city next to some "queer with AIDS." Then there's retired basketball player Tim Hardaway's screed about not wanting to play on the same team as a gay person, because it might make the locker room experience for him a little weird. And of course, former NFL runningback Garrison Hearst said that he didn't want to see any "faggots" in his locker room.

Most athletes manage to issue some sort of apology, and then move on to finish up their careers. And on schedule, apologies have already been issued by Larry Johnson (and subsequently the Kansas City Chiefs lessened the fine Johnson was given for using the slur).

One bit of good news is that despite the voices for Larry Johnson (and allegedly Drew Gooden), there seems to be a slow tide turning to change the trajectory of the homophobic culture in sports. And it's happening because current players are willing to speak out on the issue, and because good organizations are addressing the root causes of homophobia in sports and trying to work with young athletes -- especially high school athletes and younger -- to snuff out homophobia before it starts.

Two welcome surprises of late are from NFL players Scott Fujita and Brendon Ayanbadejo, both of whom have come out as strong advocates for same-sex marriage and respect for LGBT rights. Ayanbadejo was honored by Equality Maryland earlier this year for his support, and his comments on same-sex marriage ring even truer this week in the wake of the vote in Maine, where anti-gay activists succeeded in repealing marriage rights for gays and lesbians.

"I think we will look back in 10, 20, 30 years and be amazed that gays and lesbians did not have the same rights as every one else. How did this ever happen in the land of the free and the home of the brave?" Ayanbadejo said.

But before even getting to marriage, there's the base-level homophobia that has to be dealt with, and that's exactly what minor league hockey player Justin Bourne gets at in his opinion piece in USA Today this week. Bourne said that because of peer pressure, he too caved in and used homophobic speech in the locker rooms of hockey rinks around the country. It's a culture that's contagious, but one that Bourne says has to be stopped.

"The lack of a homosexual presence in hockey must mean one of two things: either homosexual men don't play the game or they don't feel comfortable admitting it — in which case I, and my brethren, were offending some teammates with our close-mindedness, and furthering what must have been unsettled feelings of fear and general exclusion," Bourne writes.

That's exactly the point of using the word "faggot," right? To berate. To create fear. To exclude.

Jim Buzinski, who founded the Web site outsports.com, says that the word is the slur of choice for pro-athletes, and that it's meant to signal that someone is weak, feminine, or not good enough. Turning the tide on how cavalierly this word is used is going to be a slow and arduous process.

But the first step is calling out those athletes, like Larry Johnson, who use the word to beat people down -- and getting them to see that they were wrong.

(Photo courtesy of Shot by Cam's photostream on Flickr.)