Former NFL player, LGBTQA advocate Wade Davis to speak at UI
Few things, if any, would be more difficult for an NFL player than to come out as gay to the general public. Former NFL football player Wade Davis, 37, hid his sexuality throughout his career, and for many years after.
Wade Davis
Now he wants to share his experience with others.
Davis was chosen by the University of Idaho LGBTQA Office to address the UI community as the keynote speaker for LGBTQA History Month, celebrated nationally throughout October. He will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Administration Building Auditorium.
Julia Keleher, director of the LGBTQA Office, said she encourages everyone to come to the event because it is free and open to the public.
“He has a very interesting perspective in life and a story that would be educational, but also engaging for the larger campus community,” Keleher said.
She said he was chosen as this year’s keynote speaker because his career has a complicated history with the LGBTQA community. Keleher said Davis is one of only a handful of athletes who have come out. Davis now represents the LGBTQA community in sports, particularly professional football.
“With Michael Sam coming out and being one of the only gay NFL players playing now, I thought Mr. Davis would be a great voice on campus,” Keleher said.
Davis played for three American NFL teams and two European NFL teams from 2000 until retiring in 2003 due to injury. It was nine more years before he came out publicly.
Davis served as an official LGBT surrogate for President Barack Obama during the 2012 presidential election, which resulted in him becoming a U.S. Department of State speaker specialist to address all aspects of diversity and sexuality in sports. Keleher said LGBTQA issues in sports are incongruent, especially in professional sports, and Davis has become an active advocate for these issues.
“He’s been going out there and talking about these issues for quite a while, at least for a couple years and has been doing this great work … talking more about the LGBTQA issues in sports,” Keleher said.
Davis is currently a LGBTQA activist working with youth in leadership and sports through his non-profit “YOU Belong” initiative, which he co-founded in 2013 with Darnell L. Moore, writer and activist for diversity. The initiative offers a series of clinics designed to encourage inclusion and offers training and consulting services to LGBTQA youth.
He also started the Speakers’ Collective as part of “YOU Belong,” to provide extra support to the colored community of LGBTQA.
Another project Davis works on is the “You Can Play” project, an organization designed to end discrimination, sexism and homophobia in amateur and professional sports for which he serves as executive director.
Davis holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, and is an adjunct professor at the New York University School of Professional Studies Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management, where he lectures on the organization of sports teams from youth to professional levels.
Keleher said she hopes Davis will help open up a dialog at UI about how the LGBTQA community is viewed on campus in sports, residence halls, classrooms and co-curricular activities. She hopes Davis’ story will compel others to start a larger conversation on campus and work to create a safe environment for everyone.
“Just sharing his story and being himself and talking about these issues, the larger issues of masculinity and sports and LGBTQA advocacy, and inviting a perspective that maybe other folks haven’t thought of before,” Keleher said.
Mary Malone can be reached at [email protected]