Eric Anderson spent 25 years behind bars. He was innocent of any crime, but his punishment was severe.

The key to his freedom, however, was lodged deep within his soul. Anderson was imprisoned not by bars of steel, but instead by bars of fear. He was enclosed by his confidentiality, and terrified to reveal his true self.

“Anytime you withhold any secret, and you don’t have anybody to talk with, it causes immense psychological damage,” he said. “It’s a perpetual fear of being discovered that literally lingers over your brain every minute of every day, and it is a prison unto its own.”

But finally, in 1993, he found his get-out-of-jail-free card. The skeletons came out of the closet, and so did he. In doing so, Anderson became the first openly gay high school coach in America.

At the age of 25, while living and teaching in Orange County, Calif., Anderson finally mustered up enough courage to proudly proclaim his sexuality. He said he had known he was gay since the age of 6 but led a sheltered life and spent his childhood and teenage years paralyzed by fear. After coming out, he found the experience so liberating he couldn’t believe he had incarcerated himself for so long.

“Once you come out, it’s so overwhelming, so enthralling and so empowering,” he said. “It’s kind of like a roller coaster. There’s some scary moments, but you’re glad you’re on the roller coaster.”

It was a ride that took Anderson, now a researcher and lecturer at SUNY Stony Brook, from the brink of unemployment to the role of the professor in TBS’ “The Real Gilligan’s Island.”

“I went on the TV show specifically for the purpose of giving America yet another image of a confident gay person,” said Anderson, who received his Ph.D. in sociology last year at the University of California at Irvine. “I wanted to go on TV to represent an intellect, as an openly gay professor. And I did it, and I had a great time doing it.”

Wednesday, his travels will land him on South Hill. His speech, titled “How Homophobia Hurts Heterosexuals” is slated for 7 p.m. in Textor 102. Lisa Maurer, the coordinator of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Education, Outreach and Services, said Anderson’s visit is an attempt to raise awareness about the problems of homophobia across the nation.

“It’s not just gay people who can be hurt by homophobia,” Maurer said. “When we think of boys and men, they are really in the crosshairs of our mainstream society’s ideas of what it means to be a man and how that may or may not become confused with what it means to be gay.”

Anderson, the author of “In the Game: Gay Athletes and the Cult of Masculinity,” sounded like Arthur Miller in describing homophobia. He called it a “witch hunt,” in which people continue to point fingers trying to prove their heterosexuality.

The problem, Anderson said, is that the accusations hurt everyone. More specifically, straight people are the on the losing end.

“The key here is we need to stop looking at this as a problem for gays and lesbians,” he said. “We need to start looking at homophobia as a problem for heterosexuals.”

One arena in which masculinity and homosexuality clash is on the playing field. After all, a sporting folly in the sixth grade earned Anderson the nickname “Gumby” — a name designed to ostracize him at first, but which he later learned to enjoy. As a track coach, Anderson withstood a barrage of insults, as did his entire team. He was quickly identified as “the fag coach,” and his team was “the fag team.” Even a local high school, Fountain Valley, where Anderson was a substitute teacher, became known as “Faggot Valley.”

“High school tends to be the most homophobic time of a cohort,” Anderson said. “It’s where everybody’s running around proving they’re not gay, which is impossible to do.”

Though times have changed greatly over the last 12 years since Anderson has come out, he still said there is a long way to go before real equality and acceptance are seen.

Ellen Staurowsky, professor and chairwoman in the sport management and media department, said Anderson’s visit is a step toward achieving that equality. She said she hopes his lecture will create a dialogue that has not yet existed on this campus.

“He talks about the gender-sexuality complex,” she said. “We literally deal with this on the playing field all the time, but we are not encouraged to talk about these issues. He’s going to help us have a conversation about these things.”