Kansas State Wildcats offensive tackle Scott Frantz spoke publicly for the first time since coming out to the world as gay earlier this summer. He told WIBW that he has gotten a warm embrace from all of his communities since sharing his identity with the world.
“In terms of the reaction it’s been nothing but positivity,” Frantz told WIBS. “People here in Manhattan, the Lawrence community, both communities have welcomed me with open arms. Obviously the players and coaches continually still welcome me with open arms.”
He attends Kansas State in Manhattan, Kans., and he grew up in Lawrence.
Frantz said he’s had at least a couple hundred people reach out to him to tell him that he has inspired them in their lives, including kids who said his story has given them hope. It was to help those kids, some of them attempting suicide, that he chose to come out publicly.
“You just have to help out people whenever you can, that’s what life’s all about,” the . You can’t go through it alone and if I can reach out to even just one person and help them not hate themselves, people who feel hopeless, if I can reach one person and potentially save their life, that’s all that matters. That’s all I wanted to do.”
Frantz told the Wichita Eagle that he thinks more athletes will be coming out of the closet, and that pretty soon the public interest in these stories will be pretty run-of-the-mill.
“Give it another four years and it might not be anything,” Frantz told the Eagle. “The culture is definitely changing.”
In a few weeks, Frantz and Arizona Wildcats DE My-King Johnson will be the first two publicly out gay men to play in a FBS college football game. Kansas State takes on Central Arkansas, while Arizona faces Northern Arizona, on Sept. 2.
