all the people saying it's not a big deal, kind of curious where you all live. Playing pokers in parts of the South, I can say with a pretty high level of confidence that openly gay poker players would not be accepted in some of the card rooms I play at. I've also played poker for years in casinos in San Francisco and Vegas and people don't really give a **** there.

I think that people ITT are vastly underestimating the regional attitudes towards gay people in America. I've heard the attitudes in Canada and European countries are generally more accepting as well. Anyway, congrats to Jason Somerville, hadn't heard of him before but good for him.

not even news, hate people feeding the hype when there are more important issues to address

"What is he some kind of ****? Ho!!" - Gilbert "Dice" Gottfried. ... From an old Howard Stern interview of the head of the Gay and Lesbian alliance.

Pretty sure that the very same people you are referring to that would not be very accepting of openly gay poker players, have some pretty odd habits (sexual or not) that they too understand their peers would not be accepting of. (esp the south lol) The difference is, they keep their special and unique traits to themselves... because it's no one else's business.

The geographical difference is that some people are more prone to openly bashing special/unique people for intellectual reasons... or rather, people are way more ignorant in some places than others. Doesn't mean THEY don't have their own special qualities. We all do.

I'm totally for equal rights, but the last thing I want to hear at the poker table in a social setting is what your sexual preference is. Good for you, now ****ing fold and lemme have the pot uncontested.

No matter how many of your comments get insta-deleted, I still think you're cool, OMFG

yeah, NVG is just brimming with important issues, no room for another thread

LOL I'm too critical, it's going to get me in trouble I know it. I'd better just stop, heh.

I'm happy for you Jason, I just envision a world where the only reason to admire someone is because of what they have accomplished, not for telling the truth. Truth should be the standard, individual differences should be treated with indifference, and a role-model should not be someone who publicly declares which sex they prefer, unless they are accomplishing something awesome while they are inconsequentially declaring said preference.

Neil Armstrong isn't awesome because he said, "This is one small step for man", he's awesome because he walked on the moon. He just happened to say that at the same time.

lol @ this. Yeah, because threads about which Full Tilt person is a bigger scumbag, photoshop threads, Johnny Hughes threads, High Stakes rail threads, etc. are so much more important.

We congratulate someone when they win a tournament and that is just applauding variance

My point is it doesn't matter if you're straight or gay - if you're wearing that outfit you're going to get looks. Certain gay people get dressed up in a very eccentric way and then when someone hurls an insult at them about their dress they get called a homophobe when the truth is a straight person wearing the same attire would also receive the same abuse but not attribute it to their sexuality. Anyone who deviates from the norms of dress in the society they operate in will get noticed and in some cases receive different treatment.

Hmmmmm whose this sound like Ricky? Just dont go to security on people this year k?

Same can be said for a presidential candidate that won the election. lol

unless he was lying in this interview, i don't think trond eidsvig is gay

http://news.bluffmagazine.com/interv...t-player-1919/
i can't find any other source that mentions it. and i can't find anything at all about dag being gay. i think we can assume Webjoker is just talking out of his ass

For those saying that bigotry is not present in our society.. it most certainly is. I'm not that old, and when I was a kid, it was common place to say "Jewed", or "N*****ed", or "Gayed" if you got the bad end of a deal. Something that was annoying was "F*****ry". I distinctly remember a teacher telling us to say "Gyped" instead of "Jewed" because that was supposedly more politically correct. And this was in CANADA (redneck Canada, but still).

Thing is, even though I'm not bigoted, these habits stuck with me, and I still catch myself using these words in disparaging ways. We've got a ways to go yet before we get these attitudes out of society.

good stuff

Jason, by common consent is a great person, so thats good enough for me.

Great post, and such a simple point that so many still cannot get their heads around.

You could care less or you couldn't care less? Always find this tilting

Oh, and I think it is quite a big deal he has come out. Good for him.

Hey Jason.

I'm happy for JCarver. Played with him decent amount online and once or twice live, nothing but positive things to say about him.

I 100% believe him and his story, but I am a bit confused. I don't really understand why he found it necessary to come out to a large group of predominantly strangers. I'd like to think it was to lead the way for others.

What do you guys think of him potentially profitting (i.e. sponsorship deals which he should've already got anyways) from this blog post/exposure?

Either way, I don't care, I hope he finds happiness and I'm happy he's come so far from dating girls, adhering to his parents 'keep it a secret advice', and hiding his true self.

lol true that!

+1

Who cares!

I know a lot of people are against gays. But when you think about it, Hitler wasn't gay. So maybe it's actually better to be gay.

JCarver was a complete total beast on full tilt, always wondered who it was. whats his stars name?

Taknapotin

"not that there's anything wrong with that"

thanks

it takes balls to do what he did and come out, no matter what people say about it 'being easy' and 'so what' - fact is calling someone 'gay' is usually supposed to be an insult, and yeah a TON of other stigmas and stuff to deal with, so my hat is off to him, much respect