Sean Karson Comes Out

Sean Karson had it all going for him; a junior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT] he is also the school's starting third baseman. And he's good; he had a .350 batting average as a sophomore, including a seven-game hitting streak during which he hit .540, and he's the co-captain on this year’s team. He’s also founded a technology start-up called Sponge Systems, while he's been working toward his chemistry degree and attending tech conferences.

He's also been trying to figure out how to do all of that and be himself, as a gay man.

Last week, during practice at MIT, Karson asked his coach, Andy Barlow, if he could say a few words to his teammates. Barlow thought Sean, who had just returned from a conference in California, was going to talk about his company.”

Instead, Karson took a deep breath, and told his coaches and teammates that he’s gay.

“They came up and gave me high fives and said they’d have my back and everything. It was so supportive, it was ridiculous.”

Which is how it should be, because it doesn't matter; he isn't a gay third basemen, or a gay chemistry major, or a gay entrepreneur. He's a man who happens to be gay, and also all of those other things.

“I barely held it together. I was probably not the most coherent person when I was giving that speech, but that was the third time I cried in the past week. And this is the fourth, I guess.”

His crying, something he says he rarely does, was brought on by the fact that Sean Karson realized that he had never been himself, until he decided he would come out. 

“Everything’s been just sort of cold and calculated. I’ve been in this fortress, I guess, and haven’t let my emotions out at all. I worried that I had no emotions, that I didn’t feel much about anything. It was really weird.”

It took Sean a long time to decide to come out, but he's amazed at the ease of it all; only a couple of teammates held back after his announcement, but both sent emails later in the day saying they just wanted to 'process' it.

One day soon, I'm hoping, and I'm sure Sean is hoping, that no one will need to 'process' a coming out, because it will just be ....

And Sean thinks that one day soon, a professional athlete, on a team sport, will come out.

“I think it’s going to happen in the next month. Nobody’s going to throw at you if you’re the gay person on the team. I feel great. I’m not scared.”

The only difference, moving forward, is Karson will play third base at MIT as an openly gay college athlete.

“I can’t wait to see what (the future) brings, actually. But sports are never going to be a scary place for LGBT people again. The locker room is going to be a safe space everywhere.”

Welcome out Sean, and please accept, as our gift, the obligatory Coming Out Toaster Oven and your very own copy of The Gay Agenda.

Welcome out.

Note to self: we're gonna need more toaster ovens.

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