Cyd Zeigler | |
|---|---|
 Zeigler in 2015 | |
| Born | Cyd Zeigler Jr. Harwich, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Education | Stanford University (BA) |
| Occupations |
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| Known for | co-founding Outsports |
| Spouse | Dan Pinar |
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).
Zeigler was born in Harwich, Massachusetts, and lived there through high school. He was a track and field athlete and led his high school track team in scoring three consecutive years. [1] Zeigler graduated from Stanford University (B.A., Communication), where he founded Theta Delta Chi fraternity, was on the Stanford Men's Ultimate (Frisbee) Team, and was a contributor to the Stanford Review newspaper. [2]
He is a former sports editor for Genre Magazine, former associate editor for the New York Blade , and has written for Playboy , MSNBC, CNN, New York Press and Out Magazine. He has appeared on ESPN, Fox Sports Radio, CNN, and MSNBC as well as contributing to Sports Illustrated , Logo and The New York Times .[ citation needed ]
In 1999, Zeigler and Jim Buzinski founded Outsports . [3] They co-authored The Outsports Revolution: Truth & Myth in the World of Gay Sports. [4] In 2002, Buzinski and Zeigler also co-founded the National Gay Flag Football League. [5] [6]
Zeigler is credited with breaking the story of John Amaechi coming out of the closet in February 2007. Zeigler has also broken national stories,including the coming out of then-NFL prospect Michael Sam, transgender Div. 1 NCAA athlete Kye Allums, openly gay football players Wade Davis and Alan Gendreau, and more. [7] Zeigler is featured in the 2015 documentary, F(l)ag Football . [6] [8] He was also inducted into the LGBTQ Journalists Hall of Fame by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. [9]
On March 30, 2023, Zeigler announced on Twitter that he had become a registered Republican for the first time in 20 years, stating that "progressives and Democrats seeking to use the government to attack political foes must be stopped. Period.", and that "this completely insane butchering of Democracy and our justice system cannot stand". He defended the announcement by stating that he did not like Donald Trump, but then interacted with and promoted the account of Florida governor Ron DeSantis — who was campaigning for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election. LGBT publications such as The Advocate and the Washington Blade considered the implicit endorsement of DeSantis to be a "betrayal" of the LGBT community (and especially the transgender community), citing DeSantis's support of anti-LGBT policies such as the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act. Zeigler later stated that he didn't agree "with much of what the GOP and DeSantis have done in the last six months", and that he regretted the posts. [10] [11] [12]
Zeigler presently lives in Los Angeles. He previously lived in New York City where he was a research editor for a global financial services firm. He was previously a development executive for Disney Channel, focusing on their movie and music franchises before leaving in 2001. [13]
| Year | Award | Nominated Work | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | NLGJA Excellence in Journalism Awards | Outsports | Excellence in New Media | Won |
| 2010 | GLAAD Media Awards | Former College Football Captain was Openly Gay | Digital Journalism | Nominated |
| 2011 | NLGJA Excellence in Journalism Awards | Kye Allums: First transgender man playing women's basketball | Online Journalism | 3rd place |
| 2012 | All Sports Film Festival | Thanksgiving Game | Original Feature Screenplay | Won |
| 2014 | GLAAD Media Awards | Coming Out Kicking | Digital Journalism | Nominated |
| 2015 | GLAAD Media Awards | Conner Mertens came out to his college football team | Digital Journalism | Nominated |
| National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association | Cyd Zeigler | Lisa Ben Award for Excellence in Features Coverage [14] | Won | |
| 2017 | GLAAD Media Awards | Former Patriots and Chiefs tackle Ryan O’Callaghan comes out as gay | Digital Journalism - Multimedia | Nominated |
| 2019 | GLAAD Media Awards | Finding the truth about transgender athletes in women’s sports | Digital Journalism - Article | Nominated |
| 2020 | National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association | Cyd Zeigler | Hall of Fame | Won |
| GLAAD Media Awards | Trans Athletes’ Fight for Inclusion in World Rugby | Digital Journalism - Article | Nominated | |
| 2022 | GLAAD Media Awards | Summer Olympics Team LGBTQ coverage | Special Recognition | Won |
Andy Towle is an American artist and writer based in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Outsports is a sports news website concerned with LGBT issues and personalities in amateur and professional sports. The company was founded in 1999 by Cyd Zeigler, Jr. and Jim Buzinski.
The National Gay Basketball Association (NGBA) is an LGBTQ sports organization which exists to promote gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender athletic participation in basketball.
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other non-heterosexual or non-cisgender (LGBTQ+) community is prevalent within sports across the world.
Will Sheridan Jr. is a former college basketball player who played for the Villanova Wildcats Men's Basketball program from 2003 to 2007. After graduation, he played as an international basketball player in Italy. He is now a rapper, musician and recording artist initially signed with Royal Advisor Records and an EP released entitled Ngoma. Since then, he has released six other projects including G.I.A.N.T, his first full-length LP, G2R, LexIcon, all available on all online music outlets. Sheridan also released critically acclaimed and pioneering LGBT Hip Hop EP, S.O.A.P and follow up Giant album G2, which he opted to give away for free. Sheridan is also a DJ, event curator and professional MC and Host. In addition to being an LGBT Sports and Music pioneer, he is a professional event coordinator with a New York City-based production company.
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 came out 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.
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.
Athletes and artists who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, pansexual, non-binary, queer, and/or intersex, and/or who have openly been in a same-sex relationship (LGBTQI+) have competed in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, either openly, or having come out some time afterward.
Although gay athletes and coaches are increasingly accepted in college sports, they continue to be controversial among some people.
National Gay Flag Football League (NGFFL) is a nonprofit LGBT flag football league, currently comprising 200 teams in 28 leagues in the United States and Canada.
F(l)ag Football is a 2015 American documentary film on the National Gay Flag Football League directed by Seth Greenleaf. It documents the training of players on the NGFFL's New York Warriors team as they prepare for the Gay Bowl. The documentary explores masculinity in sports. The documentary stars, Wade Davis, team captain of the New York Warriors, Cyd Zeigler, co-founder of the NGFFL, Brenton Metzler, and Jared Garduno.
Dylan Geick is an American social media personality, writer, and amateur wrestler. He speaks on his experience as an LGBTQ person in athletics and the army. Geick wrestled for the Columbia Lions from 2017 to 2018. Geick served in the United States Army for a brief period of just over one year, before leaving.
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