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Teenage basketball player chased out of US school by boys yelling 'f****t' after coming out as gay on court

Players from an opposing team chased Dalton Maldonado's bus in cars and threatened him after he admitted he was gay on the court

Lizzie Dearden
Sunday 05 April 2015 18:30 BST
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Dalton Maldonado was chased and threatened after coming out at a basketball game
Dalton Maldonado was chased and threatened after coming out at a basketball game

A teenage basketball player has told how he was chased out of a school by boys calling him a “f****t” after he came out in the US.

Dalton Maldonado, from Floyd County in Kentucky, had been beaten in an away game with his team from Betsy Layne High School when an opponent hurled a gay slur as they left the court.

“Hey number three, I hear you're a f****t,” the player shouted, the 19-year-old recalled to Outsports.

His quick reply - "Yeah baby, can I have your number?" – confirmed the rumours and he told his friends he was gay after breaking down in the changing room minutes later.

Dalton never planned to come out while competing in basketball leagues and had only told his parents that week.

After getting changed, he and his team made their way back to the bus that would take them back to their hotel, but some of the opposing team were waiting.

After shouting “f****t”, they tried to board the bus before jumping in their cars so they could chase him as it pulled away.

“Members of the other team were pounding on the windows of our bus, yelling ‘let him off the bus’ and screaming ‘f****t’,” Dalton told The Independent.

“I felt a little threatened at first, but more so when they started following the bus.”

The chase continued through the city of Lexington until the coach of the opposing team intervened.

Dalton plays for Betsy Layne High School in rural Kentucky

Police were called to the hotel Dalton and his team were staying at and for the rest of the four-day tournament, held in December, the group had to be escorted to games.

Some of the younger players were so frightened that they returned home early, he said.

As awful as that experience was, the teenager said he shared his experience because of the way his friends rallied around him afterwards.

“My teammates were amazing through the whole ordeal,” Dalton told The Independent.

“They stuck by my side and were there for me…I had grown up with these boys.

“I knew no matter what they'd be there for me and support me - they're like family.”

Consensual 'sodomy' was illegal in Kentucky until 1992 and the state has not legalised same-sex marriage

Dalton said he did not want to identify the school team who chased him because he wanted to bring positive attention to the support people get when coming out, not get anyone “bashed”.

He thinks homophobia in sport is a problem “in general” but that should not stop people coming out.

“Be who you are, do what you think you're ready to do,” he said.

“If it's support you are worrying about, just look at my wall or Twitter. The world will support you, and to the people that don't…they don't deserve you in their life.”

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