Outsports is highlighting our selections for the 100 most powerful and influential out LGBTQ people in sports in the United States, in the Outsports Power 100.
League executives. Team owners. Athletes. Coaches. College sports administrators. Members of the sports media.
The breadth, depth and diversity of the honorees are a profound statement.
Here are Outsports’ selections for Nos. 21-30:
Get off the sidelines and into the game
Our weekly playbook is packed with everything from locker room chatter to pressing LGBTQ sports issues.
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21) Clay Allen
General Counsel, Houston Rockets
As general counsel for the Houston Rockets, Clay Allen is in a real position of power and visibility for LGBTQ people in sports. Allen came out publicly as gay in 2022 and is not shying away from being an advocate for more representation and visibility. “Sports has notoriously and publicly suffered from a lack of LGBTQ+ representation,” Allen said in 2022. “Male professional athletes almost never come out during their careers, and only a handful of out executives work for sports teams. But we know that members of the LGBTQ+ community actively participate in recreational sports and make up a large portion of sports fans. How can we bridge this gap? Improving representation and visibility are the first steps. I’m not the first gay executive in sports, and it’s important that executives like me continue to speak up and show other members of the LGBTQ+ community that there’s space for them in sports.” Allen is also a board member of the LGBTQ sports nonprofit Homefield Alliance. — Jim Buzinski
22) Diana Taurasi
Athlete, Phoenix Mercury and Team USA
Diana Taurasi is celebrated as the GOAT of the WNBA, and has the hardware to prove it. In her almost 20-year professional basketball career, she has won five Olympic gold medals and three championship rings, become the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer as well as setting innumerable other league and franchise records. Taurasi came out publicly in 2017, celebrating her marriage to Penny Taylor 13 years after the two met as teammates on their first day with the Phoenix Mercury back in 2004. This year, Taurasi was re-signed to a multiyear contract with the Mercury and has her eyes set on a sixth gold medal at the 2024 Olympics. — Shelby Weldon
23) Ginny Gilder
Co-owner, Seattle’s WNBA team
Ginny Gilder is an Olympic medalist in rowing and a longtime advocate for women in sports, famously taking part in a demonstration of her university’s Title IX violations back in 1976 — four years after the law was first enacted. Today she is an entrepreneur and investor, a co-owner of Seattle. Her drive for social justice continues to remain an important part of the work Gilder does. “The WNBA lives at the intersection of business, sport, and social change — and I love living at that corner,” Gilder said. — Shelby Weldon
24) Izzy Gutierrez
Commentator and writer, ESPN
For nearly 20 years, Gutierrez has been a fixture on ESPN, making him one of the most prominent out sports reporters in the country. A long-time panelist for “Around the Horn” and NBA reporter, Gutierrez uses his platform to speak openly about himself and champion the LGBTQ community. He’s shared some of the most personal details of his life, including his experiences with personal tragedy and loss. “Where I’ve landed after all of this is, if just everybody would just admit to what is troubling them in their lives, or what’s not going great in their lives, we would all recognize we all have so many things we can relate to each other by,” he told Outsports in 2020. Each day, Gutierrez shows LGBTQ people in sports that they aren’t alone. — Alex Reimer
25) Greg Bader
SVP, Baltimore Orioles
“I just assumed to be in sports and to be gay just meant that you would live two different lives,” Greg Bader said. “You’d have your professional life and you’d have your personal life and they wouldn’t meet.” The Orioles executive now knows that this belief is no longer true. Check out the full story. — Ken Schultz
26) Christine Vicari
SVP, Labor Finance, NFL
As the NFL’s senior vice president of labor finance, Christine Vicari touches every aspect of the league, setting the annual salary cap and working with team owners and execs. She is doing it all as an out-and-proud woman. Check out the full story. — Alex Reimer
27) Roscoe Mapps
VP, External Affairs, San Francisco Giants
One moment Roscoe Mapps is most proud of came in 2021, when the Giants became the first team to celebrate a Pride Day with all of their players wearing rainbow SF caps and sleeve patches. Check out the full story. — Ken Schultz
28) Mary Carillo
Commentator, tennis, Olympics
Mary Carillo is synonymous with television coverage of tennis. As a player, Carillo appeared in several Grand Slam tournaments in the 1970s, winning the mixed doubles championship of the 1977 French Open with partner John McEnroe. For the last several decades, she has been a staple of television coverage of both tennis and the Olympics. While quietly identifying as a member of the LGBTQ community, Carillo has earned Emmys and Peabody Awards during her distinguished broadcasting career. — Cyd Zeigler
29) Katie Barnes
Journalist, ESPN & ESPNW
At the intersection of sports and gender, Katie Barnes isn’t just reporting on the conversation, they have driven the conversation. Since coming to ESPN in 2015, they’ve mixed trailblazing coverage of women’s sports with timely features surrounding inclusion of transgender and nonbinary athletes and the issues surrounding them. Barnes has written some of the most important articles on those issues since the current wave of anti-trans legislation first came to shore. In 2022, their reporting on trans inclusion in sports for ESPN netted their third GLAAD Media Award nomination. They have a book on the subject set to hit the shelves in September. — Karleigh Webb
30) Greg Louganis
Olympian, diving legend
By the time he competed in the Seoul 1988 Summer Olympics, Greg Louganis had already established himself as one of the most dominant divers of all time. He had won two Olympic golds while setting record scores at the 1984 Games and claimed five World Championship titles as well. Then, in a frightening moment, Louganis clipped his head on the springboard and split open a gash while attempting a dive. After being stitched up, he got back on the board and promptly won two more Olympic golds. Louganis publicly came out as gay at the 1994 Gay Games, later revealed his HIV positive status, triumphed over the homophobic blowback, and went on to become a diving legend. The subject of both a memoir and documentary, he currently serves as a diving coach, motivational speaker and mentor for out athletes like Tom Daley. —Ken Schultz
