What if a professional football player came out as gay… and the world didn’t stop? It blinked a little, but it didn’t stop. To me, that’s the headline from all this. Not a “so what?”
It’s bigger than that. It’s more of an, “okay, good for him.”
By now, you know what I’m talking about. Carl Nassib, a defensive end for the Las Vegas Raiders, posted on Instagram that he’s gay.
If you haven’t seen it yet, you should. Simple, straight to the point, Nassib said, “I want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay.”
Wait. Did that just happen? Yes, it did. What comes next? Support. Loads and loads of support.
Look, I’m old and gay. I remember a time when this would have been earth shattering. Career ruining. I mean, who would want a gay man with you in a locker room?
How far we’ve come.
Growing up gay in Paris, Texas, in the 1970s, you could not be gay. Even if you knew it about yourself, you couldn’t “be” it. So, I played “the game.” Dated girls… Kinda.
At a class reunion years later, and with a few drinks in me, I told a classmate that I always had a crush on him. His response was, “Really?” He was flattered. The conversation continued that everyone always knew I was gay. You know what? Nobody cared.
I spent a big chunk of my TV news career hiding who I was. It wasn’t until I got to Tampa that I became comfortable telling the people who I worked with that I was gay. They all knew. You know what? Nobody cared.
I’m happily married now. Married to a man whom I love more than anything in the world. Enrique and I just celebrated our ninth anniversary. He is the best thing to ever happen to me. You know what? Everyone cares.
Back to Carl Nassib. Besides coming out as gay, he said he was giving $100,000 to the Trevor Project. That’s a non-profit focused on preventing suicide among LGBTQ+ youth. The Washington Post reports that the The NFL answered by matching it.
President Biden tweeted his support to Nassib and Kumi Yokoyama, a women’s soccer player who came out as a transgender man: “I’m so proud of your courage. Because of you, countless kids around the world are seeing themselves in a new light today.”
“People” reports an outpouring of support for Carl Nassib from the NFL community. J.J. Watt, Julian Edelman and Saquon Barkley among them.
ESPN reports that Carl Nassib’s jersey is now the top seller at Fanatics.
Carl Nassib’s announcement ended this way: “I think that representation and visibility are so important. I actually hope that one day, videos like this and the whole coming out process are just not necessary. But until then, I’m going to do my best and do my part to cultivate a culture that’s accepting, that’s compassionate.”
Maybe we won’t need that “coming out” announcement in the future. Right now though, we do. Carl Nassib’s announcement has changed how we view professional sports.
I can’t wait to see where this goes.
Love you Russell. While our politics may not gel, I still love watching you and following your blog!
Hi, Russell, I feel like I need to clarify my previous comment. Please know that when I said our “politics don’t gel” I meant politics, it was not and is not a way of using code. One of my great joys is that my beloved nephew and his husband took my advice and had their wedding ceremony in Las Vegas. They were just going to go to City Hall in Pensacola and I told him it was an important day and should be a special day for the two of them. Again, love you Russell.
Thank you!
I agree Russell, it’s great that it was mostly just OK!
I came out later in life and for the most part it didn’t change a lot in my life. Once again everyone seemed to know or suspect anyway. But I did lose my oldest and closest friend to religion which only came about 25 years into our 30 year friendship.
It still hurts but I guess there’s always going to be some fallout when you be-come your authentic self among others who may not be so authentic, or haven’t found their own self yet.
We’ve come so far but still have a long way to go! ????
Thank you.