From: NewNowNext
The world of professional sports is becoming more and more welcoming and inclusive of the LGBT community. Here, we showcase six men and women who helped fuel that change. Some were out on the field, others couldn’t be open while they were playing, but all blazed trail in professional sports and LGBT advocacy.
Watch Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey of Chamique Holdsclaw on May 3 at 10/9c on Logo TV.
1
David Kopay
NFL Player
Joe Namath might have made waves by cheekily wearing hosiery in a 1974 Hanes pantyhose commercial, but the big bombshell came a year later when former Redskins running back Dave Kopay came out in his bestselling autobiography.
Decades before Michael Sam, he was the first NFL player to ever do so.
“I got very, very few hate mails.” Kopay, now 72, told Outsports. “Mostly the mail that poured in was amazingly supportive and [people] telling their own stories.”
But after he retired and sought work as a coach, Kopay found himself effectively blacklisted. Instead, he became a successful Southern California businessman.
Kopay continues to make meaningful contributions as a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation and a Gay Games ambassador. In 2007 he announced plans to leave a million-dollar endowment to his alma mater, the University of Washington, for the school’s LGBT Center.
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