Carl Nassib was selected in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns. Eight years later, he was once again be part of the draft. Nassib took the stage dressed in a hoodie Friday with Peggy Rajski from The Trevor Project to announce the Browns’ second-round pick, each of them wearing a Trevor Project shirt. “They do incredible work for crisis intervention for LGBTQ youth,” Nassib told the crowd in Detroit about the Trevor Project, which cheered. Carl Nassib represented the @TrevorProject as he announced the @Browns 54th overall pick. The NFL is proud to support the Trevo ..read more

Five years ago, CeCé Telfer, a senior track athlete from Franklin Pierce University (N.H.), took the blocks in the finals of the 400 meter hurdles at the NCAA Division II Track and Field Championships. She ended up winning the event and became the first transgender woman student-athlete in NCAA history to win an individual national championship. Next season, a likely successor will not get the chance. As fall practices start for most sports in August, the NCAA’s transgender student-athlete policy will cede to the regulations of the world or national governing body of each individual NCAA champ ..read more

Nikki Ayers will be headed back to the Paralympics, this time in Paris and this time totally out and proud in every aspect of her life. Having been announced as an ambassador for Pride House Paris 2024 — the biggest project of its kind so far for an Olympic and Paralympic Games — Ayers is also moving up a level in LGBTQ athlete activism. However, the Australian para-rower, who became a world champion for the first time last year, admits she is not a natural campaigner. She competed in Tokyo three years ago but wasn’t on Outsports’ list of 36 publicly out athletes at those Paralympics. “I ident ..read more

Welcome back to Talkin’ Gaysball, the only place on the internet where you can find a sentence like “Nymphia Wind just pulled off the biggest upset since Kirk Gibson’s Dodgers…” One of the best parts about attending a “Drag Race” watch party is being part of a group exploding with emotion at the most dramatic moments. It’s the closest most gay bars get to a “sports bar watching a big game” vibe. During last week’s Grand Finale, when RuPaul revealed that the lip sync for the crown would be set to Kylie Minogue’s “Padam Padam,” that was enough by itself to set my bar into an uproar. It was a cap ..read more

The NCAA Board of Governors met in a virtual sessions Thursday. One of the topics at the front of the list was continued attempts at NIL (Name-Image-Likeness) regulations and reforms, and best practices guidelines for mental health. There is also a growing urgency on the matter of transgender athletes in the NCAA, even with enhanced regulation ahead in the coming academic year. That urgency has been accelerated by the efforts of certain groups seeking a total ban on transgender women competing in women’s collegiate sport, as well as groups pushing for the inclusion of trans women in the female ..read more

Heath Thorpe has a shot at qualifying for gymnastics at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games. The out gay gymnast posted on Instagram that there is a guaranteed spot for him to compete as an individual athlete. All he has to do is win the all-around at the upcoming continental championships. He wrote on Instagram: “4 Aussies and 4 Kiwis will compete head-to-head in the All-Around on May 26 in Auckland. The highest scoring gymnast on the day gets a named place at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Heath Thorpe (@heaththorpe) Thorpe was unceremoniousl ..read more

The NFL Draft represents so much hope for so many young men in their football journey. One of them is Byron Perkins. This weekend about 250 players out of college football will be selected to join the NFL ranks, as potential players at every position from quarterback to cornerback. After the Draft, there will be a furious signing of hundreds of undrafted rookies as well. Over the long course of NFL Draft history, only three gay men have been publicly out ahead of the Draft. Michael Sam out of Missouri famously came out ahead of the 2014 NFL Draft. He was selected in the seventh round by the Ra ..read more

In scrolling through Grindr the other day, I came across these profiles: “V-shaped torso with a well-defined upper body, good bubble, developed calves and good chest thickness.” “Muscular frame with good development in arms shoulders and chest, along with thick thighs and calves, a tight waist and abdomen and good bubble.” “Solid, thick build with tapered thighs and calves, athletic physique with a tight waist and hips, low body fat and defined upper body.” Sounds pretty hot, we need to meet. But when I looked closer I realized I wasn’t on Grindr but rather had stumbled on NFL Draft scouting r ..read more

A former Minor League Baseball umpire is suing Major League Baseball in federal court, alleging he was fired as a retaliatory action after he accused a fellow female umpire of harassing him and using homophobic slurs. Brandon Cooper’s dream of becoming a Major League Baseball umpire “quickly became a nightmare when Mr. Cooper was repeatedly subjected to dehumanizing homophobic slurs such as, ‘faggot,’ ‘don’t be a bitch’ and ‘gay,’ and then ultimately terminated by the League because of his gender and sexual orientation,” according to a suit filed in federal district court in New York on Wednes ..read more

“For the first time in Germany! Gay football professionals plan group coming out.’” This was the headline that ran on the website of BILD, Germany’s most popular tabloid newspaper, back in November 2023. Suddenly this week, a version of the same story has gone viral, amplified by English-language social media accounts with millions of followers, resulting in a frenzy of gossipy comments. So what’s happened to kick it all off? And what does it tell us about the challenge still facing gay and bi athletes in men’s pro sports? Print circulations in Western media may be in decline, but the spirit o ..read more