The LGBTQ+ athletes of baseball and hockey

The worlds of baseball and hockey have never been the most accepting areas for LGBTQ+ athletes, especially gay men. 

In baseball, Glenn Burke was the first to come out as gay. Although he never came out to the public during his career, he was out to his teammates and team staff.  

From 1976-1979, Burke played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland Athletics. In 225 games he had 523 at-bats, batted .237, 38 runs batted in and 35 stolen bases. On top of getting injured, the atmosphere of baseball cut Burke’s career short. 

 ”Prejudice drove me out of baseball sooner than I should have, but I wasn’t changing,” Burke said in a 1995 interview with The New York Times. 

In 1999, Billy Bean became the second former Major League Baseball player to come out. He played for the Detroit Tigers, Dodgers and San Diego Padres.  

In 2014, Bean became the first Ambassador for Inclusion for the MLB. He now serves as the vice president and special assistant to the commissioner. 

The first MLB player to come out as gay was David Denson. When he came out, Denson was playing for the Milwaukee Brewers’ rookie affiliate in Helena, Montana. He came out to his teammates first before reaching out to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to do so publicly. Denson retired from baseball in 2017. 

In “America’s Pastime,” these three players are the only ones to have come out either during or after their time in the MLB.  

Many women in professional ice hockey that have come out as members of the LGBTQ+ community, but only one gay man has come out in the National Hockey League.  

“Today, I am proud to tell everyone that I am gay,” Luke Prokop announced via Instagram on July 19, 2021.  

This announcement made him the only player in NHL history to come out. 

The Nashville Predators selected Prokop in the third round of the 2020 NHL draft. He played for the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League from 2017-2022. He also played for the Edmonton Oil Kings during the 2021-2022 season. 

Although most of the LGBTQ+ community is now allowed to compete in whatever sport they would like, trans-athletes have rarely had the same opportunity.  

In 2016, Harrison Browne became the first openly trans athlete to play for a professional team. Browne played for the Metropolitan Riveters and Buffalo Beauts of the National Women’s Hockey League during his career.  

Although he came out in 2016, Browne announced that he would be delaying hormone treatments until retirement due to anti-doping regulations. On March 14, 2017, Browne announced that he would be retiring to begin hormone treatments, but rescinded his retirement on Aug. 7, 2017, announcing that he’d be playing another season for the Riveters. April 30, 2018, five days after winning the Isobel Cup for the second time, Browne officially retired from the NWHL.  

The NHL and MLB may have the least amount of LGBTQ+ players throughout its history, but the history still matters. The stories of Burke, Bean, Denson, Prokop and Browne may help young LGBTQ+ athletes see that their sexuality doesn’t stop them from achieving their goals. 

Although Pride Month 2022 is coming to an end, LGBTQ+ athletes aren’t. There are openly gay athletes in high school and college that will make it to the big leagues. LGBTQ+ athletes have always been a part of professional sports, and they always will be. 

James Taurman-Aldrich can be reached at [email protected]