In 1869, residents of Bloomburg, Texas, killed an outlaw by the name of Cullen Baker by poisoning his whiskey, shooting him in the head and dragging his body through the streets. Today, the 375 townsfolk brag about the event, celebrating it annually with the Cullen Baker Country Fair — even as they draw and quarter another of their own.

Merry Stephens began coaching the girls’ basketball team for the Bloomburg Independent School District in 1999. The “district” consists of one building, the place of learning for 264 students ranging from kindergarten through high school.

Despite the small pool of potential players, though, Stephens has found great success in the past couple of years. Last season, her team won the area, district and regional championships. One more win would have put them in the state tournament. After one of the most successful seasons in the school’s history, the town put on a parade for the team.

But for its coach, the parade was tantamount to being dragged through the streets like Cullen Baker 135 years earlier. All along the route, parents and townspeople were whispering the same things they had been saying for five years. Stephens was a lesbian.

Stephens kept it hidden as best she could, but in a town as small as Bloomburg, rumors spread like wildfires. She said she feared that telling the truth would cost her the coaching position.

Many of the girls on her team said their coach’s sexual orientation didn’t bother them. Certainly her tenure as coach had been incredibly successful, regardless of her preference, and no allegations of inappropriate behavior were ever made against her. Still, some parents decried the influence they feared a lesbian might have on their daughters.

When one of her former players admitted to being a lesbian in college, residents of the small Texas town blamed Stephens’ influence. They called for Stephens to be fired and, in December, she and her partner, Sheila Dunlap — the school’s bus driver and teacher’s aide — were let go on thinly-veiled excuses that reeked of homophobia.

After suing the school district, Stephens settled out of court last week. The school will buy out the remaining two years of her contract — worth an estimated $100,000 — and in return, Stephens will pursue no further legal action.

Stephens was right to fear that voicing her orientation would cost her the job she loved and had performed so well. But her case is just one specific instance of an increasing and disturbing trend in sports. That trend was further highlighted by a study published last week, conducted by NBC and USA Network.

According to the poll, which appeared in the newest Sports Illustrated magazine that hit shelves Wednesday, 86 percent of respondents agreed that it is acceptable for male athletes to participate in sports, “even if they are openly gay.” But when push comes to shove, nearly a quarter of the 979 people polled gave in, 24 percent opining, “having an openly gay player hurts the entire team.”

Homosexuals — both men and women — comprise somewhere between four and 10 percent of the population, yet in men’s professional sports, every admitted homosexual has come out only after retirement. Of more than 3,000 male professional athletes in the four major sports, not one admits to being gay.

On the women’s side, things aren’t much better. In the 1980s, Martina Navratilova was the best tennis player in the world, but commercial sponsorship often eluded her because she was an admitted lesbian. And whether morally right or wrong, the new study shows that sponsors probably made the economically smart decision; 18 percent of Americans polled admit that they would be less likely to buy sports apparel endorsed by gay athletes.

Homophobia in sports is not a problem limited to small, backward towns in Texas. Athletes and coaches alike at all levels of sports avoid the topic of their orientation, and even in mainstream media — where athletes are scrutinized and analyzed beyond all rights — the issue comes up only when someone like Stephens is brave enough — or forced — to come out.

Thanks in large part to players like Navratilova and coaches like Stephens, the sports community has slowly shifted toward greater acceptance of gays in sports. Of the respondents, 79 percent agreed that Americans are more accepting of gays in sports today than they were 20 years ago.

Still, in the testosterone-driven if often-homoerotic world of sports, acceptance of homosexuality is not where it should be. American sports fans and the residents of Bloomburg, Texas, need to realize that the time has come to look at athletes the way Ken Griffey Jr. said he does: “If you can play, you can play.”

And in the specific case of Merry Stephens, if she can coach — and her record shows she can — she should be allowed to coach.