Hampton U Football Player Byron Perkins Comes Out
Hampton University Pirates defensive back Byron Perkins scored a touchdown for authenticity when he publicly came out as gay in an Oct. 19 Instagram post, LGBTQ+ athletics site Outsports said.
He made history in the process, according to Sports Illustrated, "becoming the first football player at an HBCU to come out as gay."
"Perkins, a redshirt junior from Chicago, made the announcement on his Instagram account story, saying that it was time to 'stop running away,'" Sports Illustrated added.
"I've decided that I'm going to make a change, and stop running away from myself," the athlete declared in his post. "I'm gay, let it be known that this is not a 'decision' or a 'choice.'"
"Yes, this is who I am, this is who I've been, and this is who I'm going to be," the post continued. "Simply put, I am who I am."
Perkins reflected on what being in the closet has cost him, and why he finally decided that cost was not worth it.
"I have been told on many occasions that I walk around a look as if I'm upset," the footballer posted. "This is not because I am an angry person, but because I have put on a mask, a mask that has restricted me. Today, I am destroying that mask."
"For the friends and family that have known and supported me to this point, thank you, and for the friends and family that I will lose... Thank you too," Perkins wrote. "You have all helped me in the process of building the young man I am today."
"Hampton is an Historically Black University that competes in the Colonial Athletic Association, a Division I FCS conference made up, in part, of former Atlantic 10 schools," Outsports noted. "The conference currently includes 13 football teams from Maine to South Carolina.
"Perkins is the first gay football player to come out publicly at an HBCU," the article detailed, though it said that other "gay Division I football players have been out during their college careers — Scott Frantz at Kansas State and Arizona's My-King Johnson — in addition to various other gay college football players."
Speaking with Outsports, Perkins expressed the hope he could be a role model and inspiration to others. "Especially at an HBCU, young Black gay men need an outlet," the athlete said. "They need a support system. There hasn't been an out gay football athlete at an HBCU. I want to end the stigma of what people think. I want people to know they can be themselves."
"It's about that kid who's going to see this and think he can be himself too."