Honorees 81-90: Outsports Power 100, the most influential LGBTQ people in sports in 2024

Justin Rogers is a dedicated athletic trainer who has proven his skill and dedication at multiple levels of pro hockey over more than a decade. That experience is why the Seattle Kraken promoted him to head athletic trainer ahead of the 2024-25 season, but that promotion also made him the first out gay man to hold that position in NHL history. Breaking a barrier like that is powerful, but the true power in Rogers’ experience shines through in the letter he wrote to his younger self in which he came out publicly last year. “You will live authentically and in doing so you will change and even save lives,” he wrote. “I promise you any struggles or moments of doubt you ever have will be worth it because of each story that you hear and impact you have.”

– Brian C. Bell

The highlight of Curt Miller’s 2024 was as a member of the gold-medal-winning coaching staff for Team USA at the Paris Olympics. Miller was twice selected as coach of the year in the WNBA while with the Connecticut Sun. His last two seasons as head coach with the Los Angeles Sparks did not go as well thanks in part to injuries, and Miller and the team parted ways in September. Given his successful track record, Miller is likely to get another head coaching job soon. When first hired by the Sun in 2015, Miller made history as the first publicly out gay man hired to coach a pro sports team in North America. “I have lived authentically and proud since 1996. The entire women’s basketball community knows that I am gay,” Miller told Outsports back in 2015.

– Jim Buzinski

Christine Castano has been an advocate for LGBTQ inclusion in Major League Soccer for several years. As a director of engagement and inclusion for the league, she has also been instrumental in building a network within MLS for LGBTQ employees. “If being out in the workplace, especially as a woman in a men’s sports league, allows others to see themselves and know they are welcome in spaces they haven’t always felt accepted, then I’m all for that,” Castano told Outsports. “Visibility and representation is so important in creating acceptance.”

– Cyd Zeigler

Kevin Martinez has been with ESPN for over a decade. As ESPN writes: “As an industry veteran, Martinez is responsible for ESPN’s strategic programs that enable both greater access to sports and leadership through sports. He leads ESPN’s sponsorship of Special Olympics, which has helped more than 1.6 million athletes, teammates and coaches join the Unified Sports movement. Additionally, Martinez manages ESPN’s ongoing collaboration and fundraising efforts with the V Foundation, which have generated nearly $100 million toward cancer research programs. He also successfully launched the inaugural Sports Humanitarian Awards, celebrating and honoring athletes, teams and nonprofits for using the power of sports to make a positive impact on society.”

– Cyd Zeigler

Ronnie Gajownik is a trailblazer for women in baseball coaching. She’s worked in Minor League Baseball for several years as a coach and manager. “The visibility aspect of it is huge, because, again, it’s showing little girls and showing women that we’re breaking the glass ceiling and we’re leaving breadcrumbs for everybody behind us for us just to keep adding on to it to see how far we can go,” she told MiLB.com last year. She’s a former player, having competed for Team USA. In 2023, she was manager of the Hillsboro Hops before heading to the Amarillo Sod Poodles.

– Cyd Zeigler

 

During a stretch in 2020-21, Che Flores made history with their workload, becoming the first known basketball referee to work championship games in the NCAA, NBA G League, and WNBA within the same calendar year. After being hired by the NBA in 2022, Flores (who privately identified as trans) was misgendered in a league press release. Subsequently, they shattered a glass ceiling in an American professional sports by publicly coming out as trans and nonbinary in an October 2023 GQ story. “This is just to let young kids know that we can exist, we can be successful in all different ways,” they told GQ reporter Emma Carmichael.

 

– Ken Schultz

Thalisa Rhea makes decisions. As the General Manger of the Seattle Storm, she is charged with choices that have an effect on the entire franchise, including draft choices. After growing up in Alaska, she made her mark playing college basketball for teams in Oregon, Washington and Illinois. Now the GM of the Seattle Storm, where she has worked for over nine years.

– Cyd Zeigler

Sam Phillips is an out gay gymnast who shined at the University of Nebraska and added a year of eligibility to compete this season. Phillips has a robust social media presence where he might be seen flexing or wearing a Pride flag and leans in to being an LGBTQ role model. “I choose to be a lighthouse for those younger than me but also those next to me who aren’t ready to come out and live their lives on this lit-up stage. So yes, being a positive role model is so important in this way.”

– Jim Buzinski

Christie Raleigh Crossley has endured three major injuries, being hit by two cars and a ball of ice, that have led to their inclusion in the Paralympics as a disabled athlete. They have since become a star for Team USA, winning five medals at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris, mostly at 100-meter events. They were the most decorated out LGBTQ athlete at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. They are married with three kids.

– Cyd Zeigler

Katie Willett’s role as a senior associate commissioner in the Big East Conference didn’t come easy. She had put countless hours of work into her roles, including the Grand Lakes Valley and America East conferences. Willett is a former NCAA athlete in field hockey who wears her orientation on her sleeve, while also doing her job. “At the end of the day, it comes back to helping our student-athletes,” she said of her role in the Big East. Check out our feature story on Willett and her inclusion in the 2024 Outsports Power 100.

– Karleigh Webb