The High Five is Gay

Heard this on NPR yesterday. Below is from the wikipedia entry.


"For decades, the "conventional wisdom"[2] has been that the first high five occurred between Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke of the Los Angeles Dodgers in Dodger Stadium on Oct. 2, 1977, the last day of the regular season.[2] In the sixth inning, Dusty Baker hit a home run off the Astros' J.R. Richard. It was Baker's 30th home run, making the Dodgers the first team in history to have four hitters with at least 30 home runs each in a single season. [8] As journalist Jon Mooallem tells the story:

It was a wild, triumphant moment and a good omen as the Dodgers headed to the playoffs. Burke, waiting on deck, thrust his hand enthusiastically over his head to greet his friend at the plate. Baker, not knowing what to do, smacked it. "His hand was up in the air, and he was arching way back," says Baker, "So I reached up and hit his hand. It seemed like the thing to do."[2]
This story regarding the origin of the high five can be found in the written news as early as September 1982. [9] After retiring from baseball, Burke, who was one of the first openly gay professional athletes, used the high five with other gay residents of the Castro district of San Francisco, where for many it became a symbol of gay pride and identification"