Wade Davis, a former NFL defensive back for the Tennessee Titans, Washington Redskins and Seattle Seahawks, recently admitted that he is gay.
Throughout his career, he struggled with the fact that he was a gay man in a profession where homosexuality was almost never discussed openly.
It took years after he left the NFL before he felt comfortable enough to publicly admit that he was gay, as Amy K. Nelson of SB Nation found out.
“There was a lot that stood out from our conversation; one part that didn’t make the edit was his feelings about not only struggling with his identity as a gay man, but also his identity as a black man,” Nelson recalled to Yahoo Sports.
“He would wear his clothes extra large, use patterns of speech that, to him, sounded like he spoke like many of his peers. He said that he became the best actor in the world.”
“He still struggles with identity, both as a black man and as a gay man. He’s still trying to figure this all out, but really, aren’t we all in some way?”
Davis works with kids in New York City; at the Hetrick-Martin Institute, described as a New York organization “which serves lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning youth,” he found his personal voice.
He’s also campaigning for President Obama he’s hoping to help the movement.