Gay high school basketball player attacked on the court by homophobic rivals

Minnesota high school athlete Alex Bosacker was greeted with support when he came out as gay to his peers and coaches at Saint Peter High School earlier this winter. But as news made its way to rival Minnesota school New Ulm, Bosacker began to experience harassment on the basketball court.

It started with heckling from the bleachers. Students in the New Ulm section shouted that he was going to “touch players groins” during a January game, Bosacker told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Later in the season, the harassment spilled over from the bleachers to the court.

“I got the gay kid guarding me!” Bosacker recalled a New Ulm player saying.

Over the course of the game, he said, the other player continued his anti-gay taunts while pinching him hard enough to leave bruises.

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