On Monday (June 21), Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib became the first active NFL player to come out as gay. Nassib, 28, made the announcement in an Instagram post:
"What's up people?" Nassib posted. "I'm at my house here in West Chester, Pennsylvania. I just want to take a quick moment to say that I'm gay. I've been meaning to do this for a while now, but I finally feel comfortable enough to get it off my chest. I really have the best life, I've got the best family, friends and job a guy could ask for.
"I'm a pretty private person so I hope you guys know that I'm really not doing this for attention. I just think that representation and visibility are so important. I actually hope that like one day, videos like this and the whole coming-out process are just not necessary. But until then, I'm going to do my best and do my part to cultivate a culture that's accepting, that's compassionate and I'm going to start by donating $100,000 to the Trevor Project."
The Trevor Project, is a nonprofit organization that focuses on suicide prevention programs for LGBTQ youth.
"They're an incredible organization, they're the No. 1 suicide-prevention service for LGBTQ youth in America," Nassib said. "And they're truly doing incredible things. And I'm very excited to be a part of it, help in any way that I can and I'm really pumped to see what the future holds."
Photo: GettyImages.