palmettofoxden:

So I’ve been thinking about @reneewalkrr‘s Nicky photoset with the racquet with the rainbow strings and I had to share:

  • Nicky is so excited to play with his newly strung racquet
  • And there is definitely some positive response to the rainbow racquet
  • Laila and Alvarez publicly support Nicky and the racquet
  • Hell, the whole Trojan team publicly supports Nicky and his right to play with a rainbow racquet and his right to be gay
  • But there is also a lot of loud backlash
  • There’s a reason Kevin said Neil not being heterosexual could have a negative impact on his career
  • Some people are nasty and prejudiced and there’s definitely no shortage of that in sports fandoms, even though there are also open-minded fans
  • There is a lot of homophobic talk about Nicky being on the team and threats and all around targeting the Foxes over Nicky’s rainbow strings
  • Before the next game, Wymack checks in with Nicky and asks if he’s sure he wants to go out there with rainbow strings again
  • And he makes sure Nicky understands that it’s his choice and the team will support him with whatever choice he makes, but also makes sure Nicky understands that the backlash is only going to get worse
  • Nicky insists that he’s not ashamed and he wants to play with the rainbow strings
  • He wasted more than enough time as a teenager letting people shame him into hiding who he was and he won’t let it happen again
  • Wymack says “well, okay then” and that’s that
  • He unlocks the racquets and Nicky stares open-mouthed at the strings on Andrew’s game racquet
  • Andrew secretly restrung his game racquet after the last practice and this is the first anyone finds out about it
  • Andrew doesn’t say anything and remains perfectly nonchalant, pretending that there’s nothing out of the ordinary as he grabs his rainbow strung racquet

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