Photo Credit: Joe Biden/Instagram
We had two major pro sports players come out this week that President Joe Biden congratulated for their coverage. “To Carl Nassib and Kumi Yokoyama — two prominent, inspiring athletes who came out this week: I’m so proud of your courage,” Biden tweeted.”Because of you, countless kids around the world are seeing themselves in a new light today.”
Carl Nassib came out by an Instagram statement where he said, “What’s up people. I’m at my house in West Chester, Pennsylvania. I just wanted to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now, but finally feel comfortable getting it off my chest. I really have the best life, the best family, friends and job a guy can ask for.
“I’m a pretty private person so I hope you guys know that I’m not doing this for attention. I just think that representation and visibility are so important. I actually hope that one day, videos like this and the whole coming out process are not necessary, but until then I will do my best and my part to cultivate a culture that’s accepting and compassionate and I’m going to start by donating $100,000 to the Trevor Project. They’re an incredible organization, they’re the number one suicide-prevention service for LGBTQ youth in America.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made his statement in response stating, “The NFL family is proud of Carl for courageously sharing his truth today. Representation matters. We share his hope that someday soon statements like his will no longer be newsworthy as we march toward full equality for the LGBTQ+ community. We wish Carl the best of luck this coming season.”
As for Kumi Yokoyama, their statement was made on a former teammates’ Youtube channel saying, “I’m coming out now. In the future, I want to quit soccer and live as a man.” Their team showed support in a tweet saying, “thank you for showing the world it’s ok to embrace who you are.”
We’re happy to see the comfort level of these two coming out as well as the fact that their is such outgrowing support for them both. Being in the closet is something that drives people to depression and suicide and thankfully things are not as tense on the subject as they once were. As someone who had a horrible experience coming out which wasn’t even voluntary, each story like this makes me smile. And people are going to be outraged that the President acknowledged them and people also won’t care.
