Joel Auerbach via Getty Images
NFLにドラフトで入ったプレーヤーとしては初めてゲイであることを公表したマイケル・サムは、間もなくNFLのチームに入るかもしれない。複数の報道によると、ダラス・カウボーイズがサムを練習生として契約するため、9月3日に身体検査を行う予定という。
はっきりさせておくと、ダラスはマイケル・サムを練習生として契約する意向で、アクティブ・ロースター（試合に出場可能な選手枠）としての契約ではない。まずやるべきことをやらなくてはいけない。水曜日に身体検査を行う。(スポーツ専門のケーブルテレビ局ESPNのアダム・シェフター記者)
報道によると、マイケル・サムは飛行機で今夜ダラスに入る。身体検査を受け、合格すれば練習生として加入することになる。（NFL公式サイトNFL.comのイアン・ラポポート記者）
サムはミズーリ大学出身でオールアメリカンに選抜されたディフェンスプレーヤー。2013年にはサウスイースタン・カンファレンス（SEC）の年間最優秀選手に選ばれた。ラムズとの契約後はプレシーズンでタックルを11、スクリメージライン（敵味方が対峙するライン）後方でのタックルを3つ決める活躍を見せた。アクティブ・ロースター入りも期待されたが、最終的にラムズの53人の一軍枠から漏れてしまった。また、ラムズの練習生10名にも選ばれなかった。ウェーバー公示（支配下選手の保有権を放棄しようとするとき、放棄に先立ち、他チームに譲渡を希望するか否かを公示すること）で他の31チームから引き取り手がなかったため、フリーエージェントになっていた。
マイケルはロースターから外れた直後、Twitterで自身の心境を綴っている。
人生で一番価値があることなんて、そんな簡単にはやって来ない。僕はいつも教訓にしている。旅はまだ続くんだ。
■「ハリーポッター」のダニエル・ラドクリフもマイケル・サムを擁護
マイケル・サムは初めてNFLで同性愛者であることを公開した選手であるが、思いもよらない人から支持されている。「ハリーポッター」シリーズに出演したダニエル・ラドクリフである。
「これはとってもすばらしいことだと思います。彼がNFLのチームをに加わるなんて、本当にすばらしい。一年で最も活躍したSECのディフェンス選手になったのに、指名順位が249位に下がってしまったなんてひどいことです。彼の競技への考え方や、ゲイを公表したことなどについて、人は言いたい放題言うことができます。しかし過去6年間に、SECのタイトルを獲得した選手が全体で16位以下にドラフトされたことは一度もなかったでしょう。彼が同性愛者だから、というのは悲しいことです。私は心から、彼はすばらしい選手だと思っています。インタビューの中で、マイケルは一度も自分を被害者かのように言うこともなく、他の選手よりも同情される存在だなどとアピールすることもありませんでした。そんな発言をする誘惑によく駆られなかったな、と思います」。
マイケルは2014年初め、同性愛者であることを公表した上でNFLにドラフトされた初めての選手として、歴史を塗り替えた人物である。マイケルはドラフト指名後、テレビの生中継でパートナーとキスをして、スポーツ界全体に衝撃を与えた。保守派からは、このように同性愛をあからさまに表現することに対して怒りをあらわにした。ダニエルはそういった騒動を笑い飛ばして、こう語る。
「私が一番気に入ったコメントは、『彼が同性愛者であることはかまわないけど、パートナーとキスするところを見たくはない』というものです。それなら結局は、同性愛者を気にしていることになりますよね。私は、マイケル・サムが世界中に対して同性愛者であることを公言したのは、ドラフトで指名されたときにカミングアウトするかどうか、というくだらない悩みを持たずに済むためでもあったのではないかと考えています。それはすばらしいことだと思いますよ。願わくは、マイケル・サムの行動が、彼に続くすべての選手に対して道を開くことになってほしい」。
ダニエルのコメントは、的を得ている。インタビュー全文（英文）はこちらから。
(h/t GLAAD)
Straight Allies Who Support The LGBT Community
Beyonce(01 of36)
In the midst of the United States Supreme Court\'s review of California\'s Prop 8 and the Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA) Beyonce sounded off on marriage equality via Instagram with a handwritten note that said, \"If you like it you should be able to put a ring on it #WeWillUnite4MarriageEquality.\" (credit:Getty Images)
Willie Nelson(02 of36)
During an interview with Texas Monthly\'s Andy Langer in late March 2013, Nelson showed his support for marriage equality. He told Langer,\"Gay people should be just as miserable as the rest of us,\" before noting that he finds the ongoing debate over same-sex marriage \"ridiculous...in this day and age.\"\n\n\"For same-sex couples, taxes are different, benefits are different, survivor benefits are different,\" Nelson notes. \"It\'s crazy ... I never had a problem with any of it. I\'ve known straight and gay people all my life. I can\'t tell the difference. People are people where I came from.\" (credit:Getty Images)
Snoop Lion (03 of36)
As the United States Supreme Court heard cases from California\'s Proposition 8, Snoop Lion had no qualms about discussing marriage equality with Huff Post Entertainment. He told Kia Makarechi, \"People can do what they want and as they please. Satisfy yourself accordingly. I have no issues with nobody, I live for me and I live my life doing what I do, so you should have the right to do whatever you want to do.\" (credit:AP)
Stephen Amell(04 of36)
In late March, Stephen Amell showed his support of marriage equality and urged the United States Supreme Court to rule in favor of marriage equality during the review of California\'s Prop 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). \n\nThe \"Arrow\" star posted a message to his official Facebook page in support of gay rights. \n (credit:AP)
Kenneth Faried(05 of36)
Kenneth Faried, who has two moms, spoke out about his support of marriage equality and his mothers. “A lot of people [are] saying civil union,” Faried told KDVR. “I don’t like it being called that because I can get married to a female and it can be called a marriage. Why can’t a female be married to a female and male be married to a male and it be called a marriage? You still have the same thing, same love and happiness.” (credit:Getty Images)
La La Anthony(06 of36)
Before attending her first gay wedding, La La Anthony discussed gay marriage on her reality show, VH1\'s \"La La\'s Full Court Life\" in March 2013. When asked about whether or not she\'s afraid to be seen at a gay wedding, Anthony replied, “No, not at all. That’s something that I would definitely stand up for. I think about Dice, I think about Po. I think about everybody in my life and it’s like. I’m just happy to know that we’ve come this far.\" (credit:Getty Images)
Lena Dunham(07 of36)
Creator and star of HBO\'s hit series \"Girls\" is no stranger to controversial topics and at the 2013 Golden Globe awards, Dunham unsurprisingly admitted her support for same-sex marriage in response to questions about her possible engagement to Fun. guitarist Jack Antonoff: \"\"I don\'t want to get married until all gay people can get married.\" (credit:AP)
Susan Olsen(08 of36)
Actress Susan Olsen, famous for playing Cindy on \"The Brady Bunch,\" showed her support of same-sex marriage while the United States Supreme Court reviewed California\'s Prop 8 and Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in March 2013. \n\nShe posted a cover photo to her Facebook page that show Cindy Brady praying and has the caption, \"Please God, let the Supreme Court know that you think it\'s OK for gay people to marry.\" (credit:Getty Images)
A$AP Rocky(09 of36)
During an interview with Interview Magazine in March 2013, the rapper sounded off on the \"gay thing in Hip-hop.\" \n\nThe Harlem native said, “So now that I’m here and I’ve got a microphone in my hand and about 6,000 people watching me, I need to tell them how I feel.\" He added, \"For instance, one big issue in hip hop is the gay thing. It’s 2013, and it’s a shame that, to this day, that topic still gets people all excited. It’s crazy. And it makes me upset that this topic even matters when it comes to hip hop, because it makes it seem like everybody in hip hop is small-minded or stupid -- and that’s not the case.\"\n\nRocky said that he treats everybody equal and he wants his listeners and followers to do the same. \"We’ve got people like Jay-Z. We’ve got people like Kanye. We’ve got people like me. We’re all prime examples of people who don’t think like that. I treat everybody equal, and so I want to be sure that my listeners and my followers do the same if they’re gonna represent me. And if I’m gonna represent them, then I also want to do it in a good way.” (credit:Getty Images)
Macklemore(10 of36)
Macklemore, the breakout hip hop artist of 2013, is the man behind the gay rights anthem \"Same Love,\" along with Ryan Lewis, that took the 2013 Video Music Awards by storm. Macklemore is an outspoken supporter of gay rights, saying in an interview: \"I think that looking at the hip-hop community, and holding myself accountable in the hip-hop community, was what I cared about. That\'s my community; that\'s who I see to be oppressing gay people...Homophobia is still rampant in the hip-hop community and it just gets the co-sign.\" (credit:Getty)
Anna Wintour(11 of36)
Editor-In-Chief of American Vogue and style icon Anna Wintour publicly stated her support for gay marriage by taking part in the Human Rights Campaign\'s \"New Yorkers for Marriage Equality.\" During the 30-second clip, Wintour beautifully states: \"As far as I\'m concerned, having the right to say \'I do\' is as fundamental as the right to vote. The time is now, please join me in supporting marriage equality for all New Yorkers.\" (credit:AP)
Jay-Z(12 of36)
Jay-Z showed his support of President Barack Obama\'s endorsement of marriage equality. The rapper said, \"What people do in their own homes is their business, and you can choose to love whoever you love. That\'s their business. It\'s no different than discriminating against blacks. It\'s discrimination, plain and simple.\" (credit:AP)
Chris Kluwe(13 of36)
Kluwe wrote an open letter to a Maryland legislator who spoke out against the supportive views of Brendon Ayanbadejo. He also recorded a video supporting marriage equality.\"Excluding gay couples from marriage is a meaningless and reckless restriction of individual freedom and basic human rights,\" said the Vikings punter. \n\n\"To deny an entire group of people the ability to be legal couples is anti-American and anti-freedom. As a devoted husband and father of two, I can\'t imagine the state of Minnesota not recognizing my love for my wife Isabelle. We would welcome and respect the equal rights for gays to experience the same joy and privileges of marriage that we do.\" (credit:Getty Images)
Kathy Griffin(14 of36)
Kathy has been a long-time supporter of the LGBT community, using her blunt wit and comedic nature to make her opinions heard. The moments where she has shown support for marriage equality are too numerous to pick one example, but they range from her marching with advocates of same-sex marriage to telling reporters that we need a lesbian president (she nominates Suze Orman). (credit:AP)
NeNe Leakes(15 of36)
The star of Bravo\'s \"Housewives of Atlanta\" showed her support of gay marriage during an interview with the Advocate. \"To me, same-sex marriage is like the new normal. I don’t give a sh*t. If two gay people want to get married it doesn’t bother me. If two people say they love each other and they want to be together, they should be together. Don’t you think?,\" the reality star and actress told the Advocate. (credit:Getty Images)
Anne Hathaway(16 of36)
Anne Hathaway, who\'s been outspoken about her support for her gay brother, told Chelsea Handler in Interview, \"The other thing I want to say about Jersey is they need to get on the New York bandwagon and legalize gay marriage.\" She continued, \"But I think everybody should do that. It\'s not a specifically Jersey thing.\" (credit:Getty)
Brad Pitt(17 of36)
Though it was revealed recently that Pitt and longtime partner Angelina Jolie are now engaged (they previously said they would not get married until marriage was an option for all people), the actor has been a staunch supporter of the LGBT community.\n\nIn 2009 he donated $100,000 to fighting Proposition 8, the California law which made same-sex marriage illegal in the state. \n\nPitt said:\n
\"Because no one has the right to deny another their life, even though they disagree with it, because everyone has the right to live the life they so desire if it doesn\'t harm another and because discrimination has no place in America, my vote will be for equality and against Proposition 8.\"\n\nPitt also recently starred in a production of Dustin Lance Black\'s play \"8,\" based on the Prop 8 trial. (credit:Getty Images)
Kelly Osbourne(18 of36)
Having served as Grand Marshall of the 40th annual Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade in Hollywood alongside her mother, appearing as a guest judge multiple times on \"RuPaul\'s Drag Race,\" and campaigning heavily against California\'s Proposition 8, Kelly Osbourne is in many ways considered a gay icon. While serving as Grand Marshall, Osbourne repeatedly shouted \"My God loves gays!\" (credit:AP)
Carrie Underwood(19 of36)
The queen of country originally came out in support of same-sex marriage in 2012, receiving backlash from her largely-christian fan-base. She then reaffirmed her stance in a February 2013 interview, stating, \"\"I’m in favor of acceptance...and I am a Christian person, and I do love the Lord, and I feel no matter who you are, what you believe, how you live your life, it’s not my place to judge.\" (credit:AP)
Brendon Ayanbadejo (20 of36)
The Baltimore Ravens player spearheaded submitting a brief on behalf of professional athletes and celebrities in favor of marriage equality before the United States Supreme Court reviewed California\'s Prop 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). He was also one of the first NFL players to welcome gays to come out while playing professional sports. (credit:Getty Images)
Cyndi Lauper(21 of36)
Lauper launched her Give a Damn Campaign to raise awareness for the struggles of gay and transgender youth. \"For far too long, dogma and fear have torn apart too many families,\" she wrote in The Huffington Post in 2011. \"It is a time when the heart must lead the way when your child shares this personal and life-changing moment with you.\" (credit:Getty)
Clint Eastwood(22 of36)
In a 2011 interview with GQ Eastwood said:\r\n\r\n\"These people who are making a big deal out of gay marriage? I don\'t give a f*** about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We\'re making a big deal out of things we shouldn\'t be making a deal out of. They go on and on with all this bulls*** about \"sanctity\" -- don\'t give me that sanctity crap! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.\" (credit:Getty Images)
Charles Barkley(23 of36)
During an interview on SiriusXM radio, Barkley was asked how he felt about gay players in the locker room.\r\n\r\nBarkley responded that a gay player would only be judged based on\r\n\"whether he can play or not. If somebody is gay, that\'s their own business. But it bothers me how people try to say that jocks are not going to like a gay. ... I think gay people should be allowed to get married and God bless them, that\'s their own business. Listen, if a guy can\'t play that\'s the only time we don\'t want to play with him. We don\'t care about all that extracurricular stuff.\" (credit:NBAE/Getty Images)
Kate Winslet(24 of36)
\"I like the diversity that my children are exposed to every day,\" Kate Winslet told V magazine in 2011. \"I love the way their brains work. Joe [her son] turns to me the other day and says, \'One day, I will have a girlfriend. But I might have a boyfriend. If I\'m gay.\' He\'s 7! And I said, \'You might have a girlfriend or a boyfriend, darling.\' And he said, \'Which would you prefer?\' And I said, \'My love, that would be entirely up to you, and it doesn\'t make any difference to me.\'\" (credit:Getty)
Julianne Moore(25 of36)
\"I think it\'s a very basic human rights issue,\" Moore, who played one half of a lesbian couple in 2010\'s \"The Kids Are Alright,\" told Women\'s Wear Daily. \"Everybody has the right to marry the person they love and be represented as a couple and family....It\'s something that people will look back on in years to come and say, \'I can\'t believe it took so long for us to recognize this.\' It\'ll be like segregation and giving women the right to vote.\" (credit:Getty)
Steven Spielberg(26 of36)
Brad Pitt wasn\'t the only one to donate to the fight against Prop 8. In 2008 Steven Spielberg also plunked down $100,000 in hopes of defeating the anti-marriage equality bill. \r\n\r\nSpielberg, who made the donation with his wife Kate Capshaw, said: \r\n\"By writing discrimination into our state constitution, Proposition 8 seeks to eliminate the right of each and every citizen in our state to marry regardless of sexual orientation. Such discrimination has NO place in California\'s constitution, or any other.\"\r\n\r\n (credit:Getty Images)
Miley Cyrus(27 of36)
In August 2011, Cyrus tattooed a small \"equals\" sign on her middle finger, in support of same-sex marriage. She later told Glamour that the idea of not being able to marry the person you love more than anything in the world makes her \"feel sick to her stomach.\" (credit:Getty)
Pink(28 of36)
Pink chose to set the video for her 2010 hit \"Raise Your Glass\" at a gay wedding. \"I threw my best friend\'s wedding in my backyard -- [she] is gay and she married her wife, and it was absolutely beautiful,\" she told MTV News. \"At the end of it, her mom said, \'Why can\'t this be legal?\' and started crying. It was just the most heartbreaking thing I\'ve ever seen, so that\'s why I\'m doing it in my video. \" (credit:Getty)
Russell Simmons(29 of36)
The entertainment mogul has long been an ally to the LGBT community. In a 2009 Huffington Post blog written as an open letter to then NY Governor David Paterson, Simmons said:\n
\"You have recently done this in showing support for the legalization of gay marriage. History will show you are right and will we support you on this issue.\"(credit:Getty)
John Stewart(30 of36)
\"The Daily Show With John Stewart\" has a long-standing history of showing support for the LGBT community. In fact, President Barack Obama received a lengthy round of applause on the show for supporting LGBT rights. Stewart has repeatedly slammed anti-LGBT pundits and situations, including the GOP\'s argument against marriage equality leading up the the repeal of DOMA. (credit:Getty)
Daniel Radcliffe(31 of36)
The \"Harry Potter\" star has been very outspoken about his position on gay rights, having done a PSA in 2012 for the Trevor Project. In fact, the Trevor Project even acknowledged his advocacy with he the hero award in June 2011. In his PSA, Radcliffe stated that, \"Gay people should have equality in law everywhere. If you grow up as a young gay man knowing you don\'t have the same opportunities as everyone else, you\'re going to feel victimized and massive prejudice towards you.\" (credit:AP)
Natalie Portman(32 of36)
Portman and husband Benjamin Millepied were among the stars who signed Freedom to Marry\'s \"I Do\" open letter, which called on President Obama to declare his support for marriage equality.\n (credit:Getty)
Jennifer Aniston(33 of36)
Following New York\'s historic passage of a same-sex marriage bill in June 2011, Jennifer Aniston told MTV News: \"It\'s great! I thought it was unbelievable. So exciting in this time and that it happens to be Gay Pride weekend. What a great weekend.\" (credit:Getty)
George Clooney(34 of36)
In a recent interview with \"the Advocate,\" the longtime LGBT ally, addressed rumors about his own sexuality and affirmed his dedication to supporting his gay friends:\r\n
\"I think it\'s funny, but the last thing you\'ll ever see me do is jump up and down, saying, \'These are lies!\' That would be unfair and unkind to my good friends in the gay community,\" Clooney said. \"I\'m not going to let anyone make it seem like being gay is a bad thing. My private life is private, and I\'m very happy in it. Who does it hurt if someone thinks I\'m gay? I\'ll be long dead and there will still be people who say I was gay. I don\'t give a sh*t.\"(credit:AP)
Rev. Al Sharpton(35 of36)
Rev. Al Sharpton, who has blogged for HuffPost in the past, is a powerful ally in the fight for LGBT rights. He regularly goes to bat for the LGBT community, despite his ties to the baptist church, and has previously stated that \"there\'s a reason why Blacks, Latinos, Asians, gays, immigrants and other groups overwhelmingly voted with the Democrats during the last election -- mainly that we vote with those who fight for greater equality.\" (credit:AP)
Carly Ray Jepsen(36 of36)
\"Call Me Maybe\" singer Carly Ray Jepsen cancelled her performance at a summer Boy Scouts concert prior to the Boy Scouts repealing their anti gay stance for members (but not scoutmasters). In a tweet she branded herself as \"artist who believes in equality for all people.\" (credit:Getty)
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