Andrew Scott Goldstein (born March 25, 1983, in Milton, Massachusetts) is the first American male team-sport professional athlete to be openly gay during his playing career. [1] He came out publicly in 2003 and was drafted by his hometown team, the Boston Cannons of Major League Lacrosse, in 2005. Goldstein played goaltender for the Long Island Lizards from 2005 to 2007, appearing in two games in 2006. [2]
A two-time All-American at Dartmouth College, in 2003 Goldstein led the Big Green to the Ivy League title, earning a spot in the Division I tournament, the only in the school's history. In the first-round game at lacrosse power Syracuse, down one goal, Goldstein left the crease after a save, ran the length of the field, and scored a goal. It was the first goal by a goalie at the NCAA tournament in nearly 30 years. [3] Dartmouth ended up losing 13–11.
Goldstein came out to his teammates that summer. [4] He made headlines off the field in 2005 when ESPN concluded that he was "the most accomplished male, team-sport athlete in North America to be openly gay during his playing career." [5]
In 2006, Goldstein was honored by being named to the OUT 100 and receiving a prestigious GLAAD Media Award for the feature entitled "Andrew Goldstein" which aired on ESPN's SportsCenter. In 2013, Goldstein was inducted into the inaugural class of the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame. [6]
Goldstein hails from a family of talented athletes, his sister played hockey for Brown University while his brother played lacrosse for Amherst College. Their father, Irwin Goldstein, who played hockey for Brown as well as McGill University, is an internationally renowned physician who was the lead author of the first paper on Viagra as it applied to erectile dysfunction.
After studying biochemistry and molecular biology at Dartmouth, Goldstein received his Ph.D. in biology at UCLA with a specific focus on cancer. [7] He is now an Associate Professor and stem cell researcher at UCLA. [8]
Andrew Goldstein's Erdős number is three, based on a 2016 co-authored publication with Raphael David Levine. [9]
Major League Lacrosse (MLL) was a men's field lacrosse league in the United States. The league's inaugural season was in 2001. Teams played anywhere from ten to 16 games in a summertime regular season. This was followed by a four-team playoff for the championship trophy, the Steinfeld Trophy, named after founder Jake Steinfeld. League attendance peaked at 6,417 in 2011 and the 2019 average was 4,587.
Kyle Hawkins is the former head coach of the German National Men's U-19 lacrosse team, and former head coach of the University of Missouri Men's Lacrosse team. In May 2006, he discussed his sexual orientation with several media outlets, including the New York Times and MSNBC.com after having revealed to the university and team that he was gay. In April 2007, the story again made media waves with an Associated Press story featured on MSNBC.com. Hawkins was named the first openly gay man coaching an intercollegiate men's team sport by ESPN.
Robert Hampton Rogers III is an American former professional soccer player. He played as a winger and as a left back. Rogers has also represented the United States men's national soccer team. In February 2013, Rogers came out as gay, becoming the second male soccer player in Britain to do so after Justin Fashanu in 1990. After a brief retirement, he became the first openly gay man to compete in a top North American professional sports league when he played his first match for the LA Galaxy in May 2013.
Cyd Zeigler Jr. is a commentator and author in the field of sexuality and sports. Zeigler co-founded Outsports and the National Gay Flag Football League. He had a featured part in the documentary F(l)ag Football (2015).
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other non-heterosexual or non-cisgender (LGBTQ+) community is prevalent within sports across the world.
The Dartmouth Big Green men's lacrosse team represents Dartmouth College in NCAA Division I men's lacrosse. Dartmouth competes as a member of the Ivy League and plays its home games at Scully-Fahey Field in Hanover, New Hampshire. Dartmouth fielded its first lacrosse team in 1926.
Jordan Levine is a midfielder lacrosse player for the Washington Bayhawks.
Chris Mosier is an American advocate for transgender rights and competitive triathlete, duathlete, and racewalker. He started his athletic career before transitioning, started his transition in 2010, and in 2015 earned a spot on the Team USA sprint duathlon men's team for the 2016 World Championship in the men's 35-39 age group division, making him the first known out trans athlete to join a U.S. national team different from his sex at birth.
You Can Play is a social activism campaign that aims to eliminate homophobia in sports, based on the slogan, "If you can play, you can play." The campaign was launched on March 4, 2012, by three co-founders: Patrick Burke, Brian Kitts, and Glenn Witman. The death of Brendan Burke, son of Brian and brother of Patrick, played a significant role in inspiring the campaign. Notably, "You Can Play" is an official partner of the National Hockey League, with Wade Davis serving as the former executive director of the organization. Presently, Wade Davis holds the position of Director of Professional Sports.
There has been only one player who has publicly come out as gay or bisexual while being an active player in the National Football League (NFL): Carl Nassib, who revealed himself as gay on June 21, 2021, while with the Las Vegas Raiders. He became the first openly gay player to play in an NFL game on September 13, 2021. He later became the first openly gay player in an NFL playoff game on January 15, 2022. Six former NFL players have come out publicly after they retired. In the 2014 NFL draft, the St. Louis Rams drafted Michael Sam in the seventh round, the 249th of 256 players selected, which made him the first openly gay player to be drafted into the NFL. However, on August 30, St. Louis released Sam as part of a final round of cuts to reduce their roster to the league-mandated 53 players before the start of the regular season.
Alan Scott Gendreau is an American former college football player for the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders. The placekicker was openly gay to his teammates. He ended his college career as the leading scorer in Sun Belt Conference history.
The National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame was a hall of fame established in 2013 to honor LGBT and allied personalities, as well as organizations "whose achievements and efforts have enhanced sports and athletics for the gay and lesbian community". It was established shortly after Jason Collins became the first openly gay NBA player. It is located on the grounds of Center on Halsted in Chicago, Illinois.
Collin Martin is an American professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for North Carolina FC in the USL Championship. He has played for D.C. United and Minnesota United FC in Major League Soccer, and for Richmond Kickers and Hartford Athletic in the United Soccer League. He came out as gay in June 2018, making him at the time the only out man in any of the big five American sports leagues or any top-division professional men's national soccer leagues.
The homosexual sports community in the United States has one of the highest levels of acceptance and support in the world and is rapidly growing as of 2020. General public opinion and jurisprudence regarding homosexuality in the United States has become significantly more accepting since the late 1980s; for example, by the early 2020s, an overwhelming majority of Americans approved of the legality of same-sex marriages.
Although gay athletes and coaches are increasingly accepted in college sports, they continue to be controversial among some people.
My-King Johnson is an American football defensive end.