SPORTS
Rick Welts, Billy Bean Set Gay Precedents in Sports
Out executives navigate leadership roles in sports leagues with no out athletes
Out gay MLB vice president and special assistant to the commissioner Billy Bean has turned heads in his work to bolster inclusion in baseball.
BY MATT TRACY
In the mid-‘90s Billy Bean
was navigating the tail end
of his career in Major League
Baseball and Rick Welts was
busy ascending to the pinnacle of
the NBA’s front offi ce.
Neither had opened up publicly
about their lives. Nor did they
know each other.
But these days, the two are
linked in a fascinating way: Both
are out gay executives in their respective
sports leagues, a connection
that is equal parts rare and
remarkable when neither of their
leagues boasts any out gay players.
The NFL and the NHL also have no
out players, representing a stark
contrast to the many athletes who
are out across women’s professional
sports. It should be noted,
however, that Katie Sowers, an out
lesbian assistant coach for the San
Francisco 49ers, is making history
as the fi rst out coach in the NFL.
Bean, now vice president and
special assistant to commissioner
Rob Manfred, came out in 1999,
several years after his retirement
from professional baseball, and
Welts came out in 2011, shortly before
he left his job in the Phoenix
Suns’ front offi ce to become president
of the Golden State Warriors.
Bean, who had played with the
Padres, Dodgers, and Tigers, returned
to the MLB in 2014 to serve
as ambassador of inclusion, a new
position that entailed working
with teams to help them ramp up
diversity efforts. He dusted off his
glove and started visiting teams at
spring training, where he practiced
alongside players on the fi eld and
addressed organizations about issues
of diversity. He also speaks
Spanish, further allowing him to
communicate with more players in
a league where many individuals
hail from Spanish-speaking countries.
“I allow the clubs to invite me,”
Bean explained during an interview
with Gay City News at the
MLB headquarters in Manhattan.
“There is something about a former
MATT TRACY
player talking about life issues
and the ‘why’ about that, not just
‘you should,’ because at the end of
the day, I tell them this is a consideration
that is completely up to you
to make.”
Players, coaches, and front offi ce
executives have largely welcomed
Bean to their organizations. There
have been some bumps along the
way, including in 2015 when then-
Mets outfi elder Daniel Murphy
responded to Bean’s visit at Mets’
spring training by saying, “I disagree
with his lifestyle” and “I do
disagree with the fact that Billy is
a homosexual.” The two have since
patched things over.
Bean’s work has had a profound
effect on the league in ways that
are increasingly visible even to the
average fan. He has helped teams
forge relationships with local LGBTQ
communities, paving the way
for the proliferation of Pride nights
across the league in the time since
he came onboard. It is now a common
occurrence to see rainbow
team logos emblazoned on hats
and same-sex couples smooching
on kiss cams in baseball stadiums.
Most recently, he has helped lead
an education initiative for minor
leaguers aimed at preaching diversity,
acceptance, and tolerance,
a campaign that he speaks about
with excitement.
Bean was rewarded in 2017 with
a promotion to his current role —
which still includes much of the
work he started in 2014 — largely
due to his achievements in that
position. But his bosses aren’t the
only ones to notice his impact. He
has collaborated with other professional
sports leagues when asked.
“While other leagues have people
who are engaged in these issues,
MLB has actually created a
position only focused on these issues,”
Welts told Gay City News. “I
love everything the NBA does on
this subject, but baseball has done
something even different.”
Welts has a more indirect impact
on queer issues in sports because
much of his work centers around
running an NBA team that has
reached the fi nals fi ve times and
secured two championships since
he was hired shortly after coming
out in 2011. But he is nonetheless
very active in advocacy work
throughout the LGBTQ community
and he travels around the nation
speaking about his story. He
also brings his partner, Todd Gage,
around his team and jokes that he
“is better friends with the owners
of the team than I am because he’s
much better looking than I am.”
Bean and Welts have already
carved out special places in sports
history. Welts is the fi rst out gay executive
of an NBA team and Bean
is the second — and the only living
— out gay person to have played
in the big leagues. The fi rst was
Glenn Burke, a deeply underappreciated
star athlete who played
for the Athletics and Dodgers in
the mid-to-late 1970s and died of
complications from AIDS in 1995.
Burke, who was in many ways out
to his teams, was subject to ho-
➤ RICK WELTS & BILLY BEAN, continued on p.9
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