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Raiders defensive end becomes first active NFL player to come out as gay

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Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images


On Monday, Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib made a historic announcement. The five-year NFL veteran from Penn State, and the former 65th overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft announced that he is gay, becoming the first active NFL player to be openly gay.

 

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Before Nassib, Michael Sam, the former Vanderbilt linebacker, became the first openly gay player to be drafted, when he was selected in the seventh round of the 2014 NFL Draft.

Nassib said that he is a very private person and made the statement to gain visibility for the LGBTQ+ community, and in partnership with the Trevor Project, which aims to help young members of LGBTQ+ community who are struggling and prevent them from harming themselves.

This is from the organization’s website:

“Founded in 1998 by the creators of the Academy Award®-winning short film TREVOR, The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) young people under 25.”

Nassib said that he felt comfortable making the announcement thanks to support from his family, teammates and coaches and hopes that the process of making that sort of announcement is no longer necessary. He announced that he will be donating $100,000 to The Trevor Project.

“I’m a pretty private person so I hope you guys know that I’m not doing this for attention,” Nassib said. “I just think that representation and visibility are so important. I actually hope that one day, videos like this and the whole coming out process are not necessary, but until then I will do my best and my part to cultivate a culture that’s accepting and compassionate and I’m going to start by donating $100,000 to the Trevor Project. They’re an incredible organization, they’re the number one suicide-prevention service for LGBTQ youth in America and they’re truly doing incredible things. I’m very excited to be a part of it and help in any way that I can and I’m really pumped to see what the future holds.”

Nassib is an established NFL veteran, who is entering the second year of a three-year, $25 million deal with the Las Vegas Raiders. He has 20.5 career sacks and has played in at least 14 games in each of the last five seasons.