Tennis legend Arthur Ashe

Yes.

Likely on the DL.

I always assumed he was. Was there ever a doubt about it?

R3, he was married with a child, so that might cast a shadow of a doubt (only outside of DL, of course, where EVERYONE IS GAY...EVERYONE...well, if they're hot...)

R4. Aunt Martha, it’s time for a nap…and your meds.

No he was not- sheesh. DL is nuts!

DL is indeed nuts. And if you try to post a reasonable response you are flamed by idiots such as R5.

For Aunt Martha at R4.

R6 and R7, I won't deny that I could be nuts. But Ashe had the pristine good looks and careful, self-contained manner that I tend to associate with closeted gay men of the 70s and before. Hence, my assumption that he was gay, in spite of his marriage and child, which I hope we all understand are not dispositive in assessing possible orientation.

He was not on the DL. He contracted HIV from a blood transfusion he received following heart surgery. And OP, it's not "the " AIDS. It's AIDS. Mind your manners you disrespectful prick.

[quote] Mind your manners you disrespectful prick.

Like Issac Asimov and my next door neighbor (an elderly Jewish woman) Arthur Ashe had heart surgery, was given a transfusion that contained the AIDS virus before AIDS was able to be detected in blood transfusions, and died of AIDS.

How do I know? I worked in open heart surgery at the time. Every patient bled A LOT. My coworkers and I knew there were things surgeons could do to lessen bleeding. Like warm the patient in the OR after they poured ice over the heart while on bypass. They needed to have hyperthermia blanket turned on underneath them, be given warmed IV fluids and have hyperthermia applied on to of them as soon as the patients were closed up. (Cold patients bled more)

Some of the surgeons were sloppier than others and left more small bleeders untied.

I was shocked first time I admitted an open heart patient and was told to give the patient 2 units of blood before a HCT came back. I’d previously worked in orthopedic surgery and we were willing to watch HCT go down significantly before transfusing. Even though people didn’t know AIDS was in the blood supply, they knew Hepatitis B was (no testing for it yet) and were wary of transfusing.

When I saw HCT I said, “His crit’s 33!” Heart surgeon said, “So? Did YOU operate in him?”

Umm…no…

“So you have nothing to say about it. Give him 2 units. Tank him up!”

And that’s how so many people got AIDS from heart surgery. Dont get me wrong, most people definitely needed blood transfusions during heart surgery. Those transfusions were necessary to keep them alive. But after surgery, they were often given unnecessary transfusions to “tank them up.”

The more transfusions, the higher your chance of getting a blood borne disease.

Over the years the hospitals finally told the heart surgeons to warm the patients and to tie off all bleeders. And no blood transfusions unless HCT was below 27. Later, blood was able to be tested for HIV, and patients were able to have relatives donate blood …..and ultimately to donate their own blood before surgery.

Ashe gave an interview to Francesco Scavullo for his coffee table book on men, where he discussed being intrigued by the nude wrestling scene in WOMEN IN LOVE. Not that it means anything…

I do specifically recall Arthur Ashe being whiny and "WHY is this happening to me, I'm not even GAY!" which didn't endear him to many. It was kind of a moment.

Horseshit R14- there was never any such “moment”.

I don't know anything about his private life but he did give off old school dignified gay man vibes. He really did get the AIDS virus from a blood transfusion however. Magic Johnson on the other hand and I absolutely know nothing about it. But his story never really made a lot of sense. It was somewhat rare to get the virus from vaginal sex from many accounts although completely possible. But I've just always suspected there was more to that story but he's entitled to his privacy.

As gay as my guncles pink tennis balls.

He fathered 2 daughters.

Supposedly he had a brief fling, late 1975 with Chrissie Evert after they played mixed at the World Invitational Tennis Classic at Sea Pines, SC. She may have been trying the ultimate burn to Jimmy Connors.

I thought he had only one daughter?

Only one, Camera. Sorry.

His daughter was adopted.

He was gay, right? How else did he catch HIV and die of AIDS? I don't buy the infected blood transfusion storry.

Perhaps his “careful, self-contained manner” and “refined personality” had to do with him being an early Black star of a basically lilly-white sport in a still rather racist era.

See also Robinson, Jackie.

"Camera Ashe" is a great fucking name.

R23, Indeed, Sidney Poitier was a man with impeccable manners, bearing, and dress.

Arthur also put up with a lot of racism in his hometown of Richmond, VA.

After Arthur's memorial service in Richmond, a former city council member and Mayor Walter Kinney told a story of he and Doug Wilder running a skinny little boy off the tennis courts at a city park. Of course, it was Arthur.