Today is National Coming Out Day, a day for gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer and transgender people to celebrate who they are, and sports are a big part of this event.
In the past year, dozens of athletes and coaches came out as LGBTQ, along with people from other areas of sport such as trainers, media or front office employees. They are from 31 sports, from ice dancing to ice hockey and football (American) to football (worldwide).
Below are some of the athletes and coaches who came out in sports since the last National Coming Out Day. Some of them were out for the first time while others have been out in some capacity but their sexual orientation just became widely known in the past year. Click on their name to read more about them.
Auto Racing
Hurley Haywood
Baseball
Michael Holland
Basketball
Uri Kokia
Bobsled
Sophie Vercruyssen
Bodybuilding
Ajay Holbrook
Canoe
Sandra Forgues
Diving
Nathaniel Hernandez
Lisa Coe
Robert Páez
Scotia Mullin
Clark Carter
Simon Carne
Aidan Faminoff
Manny Pollard
Field hockey
Cheradyn Pettit
Figure skating
Jorik Hendrickx
Football
Jake Bain
Jacob Van Ittersum
Bradley Kim
Landon Foster
Donovan Hillary
Golf
Tadd Fujikawa
Maya Reddy
Payton Bradley
Gravity racing
Zack Leader
Gymnastics
Joey Bonanno
Eric Holley
Ice dancing
Karina Manta
Ice hockey
Meghan Duggan
Gillian Apps
Jay Forster
Anya Battaglino
Jessica Platt
Lacrosse
Ryan Socolow
Pro wrestling
Mike Parrow
Nir Rotenberg
Running
Johnny Kemps
Chad Callais
Adam Dalton
Tim Landry
Matt Kravitz
Harrison Knowlton
Tucker Meijer
Kelsey Tyler
Skeleton
Kim Meylemans
Skiing
Liam Moya
Snowboarding
Sarka Pancochova
Soccer
Collin Martin
Bianca Henninger
Ian Johnson
Arman Bashiri
Teran Lind
Christine Nairn
Robbie White
Lauryn Hutchinson
Softball
JoAnnah Lim
Kaitlyn Poe
Speedskating
Brittany Bowe
Squash
Luis Hernández
Todd Harrity
Surfing
Xu Jingsen
Swimming
Abrahm DeVine
Hunter Sigmund
Seth Owen
Matthew Garza
David Thibodeau
Mark Foster
Steven Stumph
John Kim
Tennis
Payton Tomasko
Nick Lee
Joseph Wenger
Alison Van Uytvanck
Greet Minnen
Track and field
Anthony Peters
Will Lynch
Michaela
Abby Hetherington
Kaylin Whitney
Sam Layding
Nika Ouellette
H. David Rials
Antonio Woodard
Derek Wiebke
Kyle Davis
Volleyball
Tiffany Abreu
Noah Munger
Wrestling
Justice Horn
Others in sports
Amy Werdine (Minnesota Vikings)
Justin Stevenson (athletic trainer)
Alex Valvo (hockey referee)
Ben Pereira (sports management)
Jason Pippi (St. Louis Blues)
Richie Anderson (English soccer)
Carley Knox (Minnesota Lynx VP)
Pascal Erlachner (Soccer referee)
If you want to tell your coming out story, drop us an email: [email protected]
