National Coming Out Day is a celebration of the power and freedom LGBTQ people feel when they come out. It’s incredible to see the happiness, freedom and joy that countless LGBT people in sports have talked about since coming out.
While certainly some youth experience issues when they come out – and we are thankful for groups like Ali Forney Center, Hetrick-Martin Institute, Trevor Project and the LA LGBT Center that help them – we are lucky to live in a time when coming out is increasingly more celebratory. Those of us who have come out without being thrown out of the house should always remember how fortunate we are to be surrounded by wonderful people.
Coming out certainly has positive and powerful societal and cultural implications, but it is on the personal level that the most important results occur. Countless LGBTQ people in sports say they are surprised by the incredible messages of support they receive from their teammates, coaches, fans and members of the sports media when they come out.
If you want to read other coming-out stories in sports, we have hundreds of them on Outsports.
