➤ RICK WELTS & BILLY BEAN, from p.8
mophobic slurs by manager Billy
Martin and drew the ire of then-
Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda
— a revered fi gure to this day — for
becoming friends with Lasorda’s
gay son, who also died from AIDS
complications. Burke wrote in his
autobiography, “Out at Home,” that
Dodgers general manager Al Campanis
went as far as offering to pay
for an extravagant honeymoon if
Burke would just marry a woman.
“I try to put him up there fi rst in
every way because his story is the
same thing where we just needed
one or two people to be in our
corner and it didn’t work out that
way,” said Bean, who did not get a
chance to meet Burke before his
death but has grown close to his
surviving family members.
The sense of loneliness as a
closeted sports fi gure is common
among those who refl ect on their
lives after coming out. Bean explained
in great detail in his autobiography,
“Going the Other
Way,” the horrors he endured as a
closeted player, including having
to secretly grieve the death of his
partner, Sam, who died of AIDS
complications in 1995.
Bean and Welts both conveyed,
in their own words, the positive
impact of connecting with others
like them after coming out.
“The outreach I get weekly from
somebody on a team or league who
is kind of trying to fi gure all this
out and connect with someone
who would understand their experience,
there is no greater honor
than doing that,” Welts said “But
none of that would have happened
if I didn’t take the step of telling my
story.”
Many other connections wouldn’t
have formed without coming out
stories. Case in point: Bean now
regularly plays tennis with former
NBA player Jason Collins, who
made history in 2013 by becoming
the fi rst NBA player to come out as
gay. And one year after Bean came
out, he heard from Dale Scott, who
had yet to come out at the time but
did so in 2014 during his threedecade
tenure as an MLB umpire.
Bean was living in Miami when
Scott fi rst contacted him nearly
two decades ago.
“He was going to work the Marlins
game, and I remember sitting
down with him and I got so choked
Out gay Golden State Warriors president Rick Welts, kneeling next to an AIDS Quilt panel, says it is important to create an LGBTQ-friendly work atmosphere
for professional athletes.
up and emotional,” Bean recalled.
“If that might have happened as a
player, I would feel like I had one
friend and with that friend I could
have talked about what it feels like.
He was in the closet for 30 years in
the big leagues. And sometimes all
you need is one person.”
The lack of support systems
weighed even heavier in the face
of the homophobic culture that
pushed Bean and Burke out of
professional baseball during their
playing days. Burke wrote in his
autobiography that “prejudice just
won out,” and Bean said in this interview
that his struggle to come
out to his parents “literally was the
driving force for me to quit playing
baseball.” He did eventually come
out to them.
It was a much different era by
the time Welts came out in 2011.
That was evident when it was not
until an hour into his job interview
with the Warriors that one of the
owners interviewing him casually
asked how his coming out story
was received.
“It was so not on their radar,” he
said. “It was like, wow, OK, I like
the culture of this place.”
Bean and Welts, of course, are
now able to relate in ways they
couldn’t when they were not out.
They reside on opposite coasts
but remain in close touch, serving
as resources for one another and
sharing experiences about their
unique roles in a straight-dominated
sports world.
“Rick is somebody I just try to
steal all his information from,”
Bean said with a laugh. “Even when
I was outside of baseball, I would
email him and ask his opinion
when I was challenged with a situation
and was trying to do something
positive. He’s so wise and so
humble; you’d never know all the
things he has accomplished.”
Welts likewise heaped praise
on his baseball counterpart, saying
that the two know each other
“very well” and describing Bean as
a “good friend” who is able to relate
to the work they both carry out.
Bean and Welts each offered a
tempered but somewhat hopeful
picture of the future of gay athletes
TWITTER/ RICK WELTS
in a male professional sports world
that remains stubbornly behind
the times. They hope to at least set
the scene for others to come out
when they are ready.
“We can’t make the decision for
them,” Welts said. “It’s the most
personal, diffi cult decision they’ll
probably ever make. What we can
do is make sure we create the work
atmosphere where they know their
job is not in jeopardy.”
Of course, the broader struggle
of LGBTQ athletes in major American
professional sports relies on
the very existence of athletes who
have been there, done that — on
the playing fi eld.
Bean knows, as the only living
MLB player to have come out, that
he will have to leverage his own
legacy to help usher in queer athletes
in the future.
“In the 150 years of major league
baseball, Burke and I are the
only former major leaguers who
ever disclosed they’re gay,” he said.
“That’s really hard to believe in a
way that constantly reminds me
that we have a lot of work to do.”
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