Good News Times Two: College Athletes Jace Anderson and Xavier Colvin Come Out

It’s been a wild month, between hurricanes and earthquakes—Carlos’ aunt and a friend, were stuck in an elevator during yesterday’s quake in Mexico City ... both are fine, as are his parents, thank goodness—and a lunatic in the White who, like a schoolyard bully, whit his name-calling and threatening war and destruction, so these two stories are a welcome respite ...

Jace Anderson runs track for the University of Nebraska and during this past year he, like most of us have done, was coming to terms with being gay; he was coming out, slowly, to friends and family and while the response was mostly positive, Jace was still leery of sharing his story openly.

Then, one night at a campus party, he was out on the balcony, and three members of the university football team came out, and one of the young men said to Jace:

“There's been a lot of conversation that you swing for the other team.”

Jace replied:

“Yes.”

And then the football player said:

“We just want to let you know we think that's awesome and commend you for not denying it. You don't really hear about that many openly gay athletes here and we think that's awesome.”

Then, sensing Jace’s unease ... “[t]hey each gave me a hug since they could still tell I was uncomfortable about the whole thing and I was obviously nervous and that they knew caught me off guard ... They were the last people I thought would have confronted me on that and been so welcoming.”

Just a few years, hell, maybe a few months or even days ago, this could have been a decidedly different outcome, but, as Jace realized, nobody cared that much that he was gay other than himself. And we sometimes do that to ourselves, we get it in our heads as to how people will react and so, perhaps, we take longer to come out. We need to realize that those feelings are on us, and not necessarily on those around us.

Times do change ... and so, speaking of football players, Butler University’s Xavier Colvin isn’t your average college football player either. He, like Jace Anderson, also had a choice: continue to struggle with stereotypes of “real men” in sports or be honest about who he is.

As a young, closeted gay athlete with very few examples to follow, Xavier wondered if he could ever merge his love for football and his sexual orientation. Xavier finally chose to be a “real man” on his own terms, and in his own way ... by standing up in front of his entire team and coming out:

 “A lot of times when it comes to gay men in sports we feel like people think we will be ‘less-than’ because of our personal life. I got so caught up trying to please others that I fell into a path of always trying to help others and not myself. Finally I became courageous enough to be myself.”

Courageous enough to be himself; that’s a huge step forward for a football player, and an African-American male, to come out as gay. It’s a huge step forward for anyone who has some kind of sceret they’re harboring.

And how did the team react? Xavier says he’s not gotten one single negative comment from the team, the coaches, the students:

“Afterwards I got texts and phone calls. The freshmen who didn’t know me came and shook my hand. And they all said, ‘we’ve got your back.’ They told me how proud they were of me. Not even a single negative reaction. It was all positive.”

Sometimes it takes just one person, or two people, to make that move, take that step, say those two words—I’m gay—and it moves the entire world forward.

And in these days we need those examples of bravery and openness and courage and self-awareness, pride, if you will.

So congratulations of Jace and Xavier and, eyes, please accept these gifts from HOMO HQ: the Obligatory Coming Out Toaster Oven and a copy of The Gay Agenda.

Welcome out.

Outsports: Jace Anderson

LGBTQ Nation: Xavier Colvin