Source: www.thedrum.com --- Friday, November 03, 2017
With the exciting World Series still fresh on the minds of Baseball fans, a former Major League Baseball player talked about his struggles, not in the game but coming out as a gay man after he left Baseball, at the 3% Conference in New York. Now, as the sport’s ambassador of inclusion, Billy Bean is helping to steer the conversation about diversity and inclusion for a league worth billions and one tied to millions of advertising and marketing dollars across the US and worldwide. Bean was a good Baseball player for several major league teams from 1987 to 1995, but during his playing days, he realized he wasn’t living honestly with himself. A video interview with Diane Sawyer played before Bean took the stage showed that his career was on the upswing, he was married and “everything on the outside looked great” he said in the video. Then in 1993, his double life began. He met a man who would become his partner, but he hid him from the world because of the machismo in Baseball, and his shame from his strict Catholic upbringing. He got divorced and kept his gay life a secret. When his partner became ill and died in 1995 from HIV-related causes, Bean retreated from his family, his friends and the game of Baseball, ultimately walking away in 1996. His story is no secret, but hearing it directly from a man who finally, after over two decades away from his playing days, feels at home as himself was inspiring, and also a lesson for those w ...
from Baseball http://ift.tt/2zc2PVZ
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