On Monday Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib became the first active NFL player to come out as gay.
Carl Nassib Comes Out as Gay in an Instagram Post
Nassib made the announcement on his Instagram account with a post, stating:
“What’s up people?” Nassib said in the video he posted. “I’m at my house here in West Chester, Pennsylvania. I just want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now, but I finally feel comfortable enough to get it off my chest. I really have the best life, I’ve got the best family, friends and job a guy could ask for.”
“I’m a pretty private person so I hope you guys know that I’m really not doing this for attention. I just think that representation and visibility are so important. I actually hope that like one day, videos like this and the whole coming-out process are just not necessary. But until then, I’m going to do my best and do my part to cultivate a culture that’s accepting, that’s compassionate and I’m going to start by donating $100,000 to the Trevor Project.”
Regarding the Trevor Project, which provides valuable resources and support to young people nationwide in the LGBTQ+ community, Nassib said:
“They’re an incredible organization, they’re the number one suicide-prevention service for LGBTQ youth in America. And they’re truly doing incredible things. And I’m very excited to be a part of it, help in any way that I can and I’m really pumped to see what the future holds.”
Nassib’s announcement will of course be big news and it is brave of Nassib to go public with this information. But he is absolutely correct that these types of announcements shouldn’t be necessary. Hopefully, in the near future, anyone can just live their life as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, just as straight cis people can and do, as everyone should be treated the same, regardless of how they identify.
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