When Derrick Gordon decided last April to become the first openly gay player in Division I men’s college basketball to publicly come out, he wasn’t sure what kind of reaction he would receive.
“I didn’t want to hide anymore, says Gordon, who made the announcement back in April as a member of the University of Massachusetts men’s basketball team. “I didn’t want to have to lie or sneak. I’ve been waiting and watching wondering when a Division I player would come out, and finally I just said, ‘Why not me?’”
Now, a junior at UMASS, the New Jersey native who transferred from Western Kentucky University, where he played for the Hilltoppers, says that he made the right decision by deciding to come out of the closet.
In the months since his public disclosure, Gordon has become a symbolic face for the LGBT college movement and now follows in the tradition of several other high-profile professional athletes, including Michael Sam and Jason Collins, who also publicly acknowledged that they too were gay.
For Gordon, who is studying sociology, the experience has been fully liberating. After he broke the news earlier this year, students at UMASS quickly rallied to his side. That public embrace, he says, is an indication that college students are perhaps less willing to tolerate homophobia and bias against the LGBT community.
“Everyone has been very supportive,” says the soft-spoken Gordon in an interview with Diverse. “My professors told me that I was courageous for what I did. They gave me hugs and everything. It was great.”
