TODAY's Craig Melv speaks wh profsnal baseball player Bryan Ruby about his experienc as an openly gay profsnal baseball player and how his dad’s support has ma all the difference.
Contents:
- GLENN BURKE, 1ST OPENLY GAY MLB PLAYER, IS SHUNNED NO MORE — 40 YEARS AFTER G OUT
- 'IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME FOR THIS:' BRYAN RUBY BE ONLY ACTIVE PRO BASEBALL PLAYER TO BE OUT AS GAY
- PRO BASEBALL PLAYER BRYAN RUBY OUT AS GAY
- FORMER MAJOR LEAGUE PCHER T.J. HOE OUT AS GAY
- BRYAN RUBY BE FIRST ACTIVE PRO BASEBALL PLAYER TO E OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY
- 9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY
GLENN BURKE, 1ST OPENLY GAY MLB PLAYER, IS SHUNNED NO MORE — 40 YEARS AFTER G OUT
The former Dodger outfielr sat down wh TODAY's Bryant Gumbel to discs his cisn to e out as gay on Sept. 13, 1982, three years after he retired om the MLB. * today show gay baseball player *
The ex-Dodger outfielr spoke to TODAY’s Bryant Gumbel 1982 about his cisn to publicly e out as gay after retirg om 28, 2022, 5:30 PM UTC / Updated July 3, 2022, 6:26 PM UTC / Source: TODAYNearly forty years ago, Glenn Burke ma the momento cisn to e out publicly as gay — makg him the first Major League Baseball player to do so.
” Burke sat down wh Gumbel the same day that the now-funct Insi Sports magaze published his g-out story, “The Double Life of a Gay Dodger. “Were you trad om the Dodgers to the A’s bee you were gay?
I thought if I jt kept to myself for a while until I was ready to tell them that they might unrstand if they got to like me first stead of what I’d done, you know, sexually or somethg like BurkeAfter clg a bribe to marry a woman by the Dodgers’ general manager Al Campanis, Maraniss said, the team trad him to Oakland, where he faced homophobia om teammat and fans; he rarely played at all before beg sent to the mors Utah. Burke told Gumbel that he gused people baseball knew he was gay om hearsay. “At the time, most of the stori natnal media about gay men foced on the AIDS crisis.
'IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME FOR THIS:' BRYAN RUBY BE ONLY ACTIVE PRO BASEBALL PLAYER TO BE OUT AS GAY
* today show gay baseball player *
Billy Bean, right, MLB's ambassador for cln, meets wh Carol Williams, sister of Glenn Burke, before the baseball game between the San Diego Padr and the Oakland Athletics on June 17, 2015, Oakland, Margot / APBurke kept active sports, petg the Gay Gam track 1982 and basketball 1986.
He played for several years San Francis’s Gay Softball League on the Pendulum Pirat, which won the Gay World Seri the summer of prented Gumbel wh the team’s hat at the end of their terview. How a father-son achg duo help athlet fd their own path04:31Father creat ‘legacy letter challenge’ after fdg late dad’s note05:51Father-dghter duo revolutniz nursery rhym on YouTube04:08Meet the Tiktok dad wh over 3 ln kids04:20Now PlaygUP NEXTWatch our favore spirg dad stori for Father's day49:57Dad and dghter re-create famo movie scen04:09Pediatric nurse and father on how his job rms his parentg04:25How one Chigo dad is rewrg the narrative of Black fatherhood04:22Dad of Team USA curlg sisters Tabha and Tara Peterson on raisg 2 Olympians04:20Dad and rapper Fyütch teach the Black history he never learned school04:25Chigo dad reads books to his dghter’s class, spir other fathers to jo him04:08Bronx dad remds that Thanksgivg is about givg back04:21Dad creat ice cream tck bs wh his 2 children wh Down syndrome04:23Dad and dghter plete rerd-breakg cross-untry trip on high-wheel bik06:19Dad of US women’s gymnast Suni Lee shar his secret to raisg an Olympian04:37Sgle gay dad of 3 over tragedy and be a TikTok star04:16Vietname Amerin thor Bao Phi tells the stori of refugee fai his children's books03:36‘I’m a father first’: Atlanta dads start a movement to help fatherls hom03:59Superhero dad and son llaborate on ic book, raise awarens about tism04:07How a father-son achg duo help athlet fd their own path04:31Father creat ‘legacy letter challenge’ after fdg late dad’s note05:51Father-dghter duo revolutniz nursery rhym on YouTube04:08Meet the Tiktok dad wh over 3 ln kids04:20Now PlaygCraig Melv talks to pro baseball player Bryan Ruby about g out | PRIDE Is Universal03:52UP NEXTWatch our favore spirg dad stori for Father's day49:57Dad and dghter re-create famo movie scen04:09Pediatric nurse and father on how his job rms his parentg04:25How one Chigo dad is rewrg the narrative of Black fatherhood04:22Dad of Team USA curlg sisters Tabha and Tara Peterson on raisg 2 Olympians04:20Dad and rapper Fyütch teach the Black history he never learned school04:25Chigo dad reads books to his dghter’s class, spir other fathers to jo him04:08Bronx dad remds that Thanksgivg is about givg back04:21Dad creat ice cream tck bs wh his 2 children wh Down syndrome04:23Dad and dghter plete rerd-breakg cross-untry trip on high-wheel bik06:19Dad of US women’s gymnast Suni Lee shar his secret to raisg an Olympian04:37Sgle gay dad of 3 over tragedy and be a TikTok star04:16Vietname Amerin thor Bao Phi tells the stori of refugee fai his children's books03:36‘I’m a father first’: Atlanta dads start a movement to help fatherls hom03:59Superhero dad and son llaborate on ic book, raise awarens about tism04:07. Yet 's Ruby's hidn part of his inty that he now believ n have the biggt impact, partially bee 's so foreign to the worlds of baseball and untry is a gay man, the only active profsnal baseball player at any level to be publicly out.
" FOLLOW THE MONEY: MLB player salari and payrolls for every major league teamHis g out follows a summer which Las Vegas Rairs fensive end Carl Nassib and Nashville Predators prospect Le Prokop also me out as gay. “As a untry mic songwrer, at first I thought beg gay was a huge weakns, ” said Ruby, who will be showsed the upg documentary, "Out Nashville. Love songs don’t need to be gay or straight.
PRO BASEBALL PLAYER BRYAN RUBY OUT AS GAY
T.J. Hoe, who is only the third Major League Baseball player to e out as gay, said shame kept him the closet, but “love has fally set me ee.” * today show gay baseball player *
”Ruby told his fay and close iends he was gay four years ago, then his teammat this summer. I've been a baseball player sce I was seven or eight, way before I knew I was gay.
"When Bryan told me he was gay I was shocked actually, " Lren Ruby said of the revelatn when Bryan was 21. And the male sports world n be very homophobic wh gradg banter.
FORMER MAJOR LEAGUE PCHER T.J. HOE OUT AS GAY
Eric Bach is an openly gay broadster for the Frericksburg Natnals. He has major league aspiratns, but his path has been much lonelier than he would prefer. * today show gay baseball player *
"I grew up a culture where homosexualy was taboo, " Jon, a baseball ach at Friends' Central High School Philalphia, said. "I had an unual look to that culture, though, bee my brother's gay. All of the sudn, the (gay) slurs that I was hearg ronated much differently.
Gabriel Cotto, the Volno' tcher, said he never would've pictured Ruby as gay. But Cotto immediately embraced Ruby once he told him bee his own father is gay.
BRYAN RUBY BE FIRST ACTIVE PRO BASEBALL PLAYER TO E OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY
"But I ed to get bullied and fights growg up bee my pops is gay.
Bean played the major leagu as an outfielr for nearly a and me out as gay himself after his retirement the 1990s. "A steppg stone that uld have a domo effect for other gay profsnal athlet.
"It's not all super rosy, " Ruby ach om past generatns have been subtly homophobic, urgg him to keep his sexual orientatn a secret or to be wh a woman to keep up a ont. Teammat over the years have slipped out gay slurs. Gehrig Richs, the Volno' assistant ach, said he imag teammat beg protective of Ruby if gay slurs were to persist once he's out publicly.
9 BASEBALL PLAYERS WHO CAME OUT AS GAY
" But there is part of the paradox of beg closeted: Homophobic language begets fear. Bryan Ruby has e out of the closet as a gay profsnal baseball player after years of nsirg takg the leap.
Hoe me out as gay and announced his engagement to his partner, Ryan Nezel, an emotnal social media post, who pched for the Cleveland Indians and the Toronto Blue Jays om 2014 to 2017, said he lived out his childhood dream of playg profsnal baseball Cleveland at 23, but that he ed as a “dg” to “numb what was really gog on si. Bryan Ruby envisns a better world of cln and thenticy baseball, so he's sharg his story to be part of the is the latt profsnal male athlete this summer to talk so openly about beg gay by speakg wh USA Today Sports' Stt Gleon.
His story follows those of Carl Nassib the NFL and Le Prokop the speaks openly about beg gayRuby, 25, plays for the Salem-Keizer Volno. He told his fay and iends he was gay four years ago and his teammat last summer, he told USA Today. "Ruby said olr ach have been homophobic, urgg him to keep secret or be wh a woman to keep up the fa.