What responsibilities do openly gay athletes have?

Canadian Olympic pole vaulter Shawn Barber came out as gay on Facebook in a brief post and then basically said nothing about it for weeks. Recently, when asked about coming out, he said: “It’s something that shouldn’t be a big deal,” Barber said, right after winning the Canadian championships. It’s a personal choice, it shouldn’t be so heavily debated."

A recent column ignited a debate that we will weigh into. We discuss whether being an openly gay athlete should mean anything and what responsibilties, if any, such athletes have.