Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Rugby, 2009. Athletes at the high school, college and pro level had come out before, even in rugby. But Gareth Thomas’ coming out spoke to people in a way that many had not before. For one, he was an active pro [...]
Posts under ‘Coming out’
Outsports It Gets Better: Mari Burningham, college volleyball coach
The latest video in Outsports’ partnership with the It Gets Better Project comes from Mari Burningham, head volleyball coach at the University of Redlands in Southern California. Burningham became known to Outsports readers after she wrote a powerful story about being a Mormon lesbian at BYU. In her video, Burningham details how things have gotten [...]
Outsports It Gets Better video: Brenner Green, collegiate runner
The latest video in Outsports’ partnership with the It Gets Better Project comes from Brenner Green, who is starting his senior year at Connecticut College. Brenner became known to Outsports readers after he wrote about how coming out gave him more confidence as a runner. I like Brenner’s use of humor in the video, especially [...]
German soccer captain Philipp Lahm: I’m not gay, advises closet for those who are
Philipp Lahm is captain of the German soccer team and he has a new book out where he denies rumors he’s gay, says he doesn’t have a problem with gays but that gay players should stay in the closet anyway. AP has these excerpts: “First, I am not a homosexual. I am not married to [...]
Moment #43: Brian Sims tells his story nine years later
Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. College football, 2009. In 2000, Brian K. Sims was the co-captain of the Bloomsberg University football team that finished the season as the Div. 2 national runners-up. He was also openly gay on the team. While many today still claim it’s [...]
TCU’s Vincent Pryor proved you can be an out gay man and play football
I hope people read the article we posted this week on Vincent Pryor, the TCU player who came out as gay to his team in 1994 and then set a school record for sacks in a game. His story is amazing and demolishes the idea that it’s not possible for an openly gay man to [...]
Moment #50: Rick Welts comes out
Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Basketball, 2011. It had been a long time coming for the president of the Phoenix Suns. Having worked in the NBA for decades, Rick Welts had kept his sexual orientation a secret from his colleagues for just as long. When his partner [...]
Outsports It Gets Better video: Kirk Walker, softball coach, Oregon State
The second video in Outsports’ partnership with the It Gets Better Project comes from Kirk Walker, the head softball coach at Oregon State. Walker was first profiled by Outsports in 2007 as the only openly gay male coach in Division I sports. Said Walker: “I am in a unique situation. I am a Division I [...]
Outsports partners with It Gets Better to highlight videos shot by athletes and coaches
Outsports is excited to announce a new partnership with the It Gets Better Project™. Together the two organizations will feature videos by out LGBT people in sports. We have begun contacting athletes, coaches and administrators whose coming out stories have appeared on Outsports to make videos, and the response has been enthusiastic. Among those who [...]
Openly gay wrestler Akil Patterson profiled by his hometown newspaper
Last year we ran the story of Akil Patterson, the former University of Maryland football player who is now an elite-level Greco-Roman wrestler. Today his hometown paper, the Baltimore Sun, ran a terrific front page story in sports recounting how Patterson substance abuse and anger issues were related to him dealing with his sexuality. What [...]
Has it become easier for a professional athlete to publicly come out as gay?
Have we reached a tipping point in the gays in sports debate? Will we be seeing an openly gay pro athlete soon? Will it be that big a deal? I have been thinking about this a lot in the aftermath of a wild eight weeks that saw an unprecedented level of attention to the subject [...]
Eric Anderson’s latest study shows increasing acceptance of gay athletes by teammates
Eric Anderson (aka Coach Gumby) has long been one of the world’s leading academics on gay-sports issues. Recently his research revealed an increasing trend of young straight men kissing one another. Now comes an update on his research into the treatment of gay athletes. Previously explored in 2002, Anderson has brought his analysis into 2010 [...]
Will Sheridan releases new video, “302″
Former Villanova basketball player Will Sheridan came out publicly as gay last week, and in his Outsports interview he talked about the passion he has for his music. His recent video “Welcome to the Jungle” has gotten a lot of YouTube play. Sheridan has released his latest music vide, “302,” named for the area code [...]
Interview: Jared Max’s first day as an openly gay ESPN radio host
What was Jared Max’s coming-out day like for the ESPN radio host? It started at 1am without knowing whether he’d come out on the air or not. We talked with Jared about the first day of the rest of his life, and how he now wishes he’d come out long ago. The coolest thing about [...]
27 sports people have already come out in 2011: athletes, journalists, coaches and execs
Updated: May 19, 2011 When Ross Forman of the Windy City Times asked me to come up with a list of all the people in sports who have come out publicly this year, I had no idea the number would eclipse two dozen. And still counting. From the two men who kicked off this year, [...]
No. 27: Professional bowler and rookie of the year Scott Norton comes out at as gay
In the gayest month in sports history, we have yet another athlete coming out of the closet. Professional Bowlers Association rookie of the year Scott Norton wrote on the PBA Web site that he’s coming out publicly because it’s “important to show people that being gay has nothing to do with one’s ability to do [...]
ESPN New York radio host Jared Max comes out as gay
When it rains it pours. ESPN 1050 in New York radio host Jared Max came out as gay in the final seven minutes of his radio this this morning. He talked about how the coming out of Rick Welts and Will Sheridan, along with the supportive words of Charles Barkley this week, made him take [...]
Video: Gay Phoenix Suns president Rick Welts talks to Eliot Spitzer
Openly gay Phoenix Suns president Rick Welts sat down with CNN’s Eliot Spitzer for a few minutes and opened up about his decision to come out. He talked about his fear that being openly gay would limit his ability to have a career in sports, Kobe Bryant, and how the reaction from across the NBA [...]
Will Sheridan: Level of response to his coming out story has been ‘unreal’
I had a chance to talk today with Will Sheridan, the former Villanova basketball player who came out publicly this week in an ESPN.com article. We spoke for more than an hour and he was engaging, articulate, funny and passionate. I have written a Q&A where he touches on a variety of topics relating to [...]
The gayest sports month ever
The past month has been amazing in terms of the number of stories the mainstream media have devoted to gays in sports. Outsports was profiled in the New York Times on April 8 and it seemed like foreshadowing. We had Kobe Bryant saying “faggot”; Sean Avery defending gay marriage; Peter Vidmar losing his Olympics gig [...]