Coach Matthews nods at another reporter who stands to ask their question.
“What will happen when you come across teams where it’s been said that they wouldn’t play another team if one of the players was gay?”
Feelings of guilt rise inside me, knowing this is a genuine concern. I offered to step down from the team so many times, to prevent them from having to deal with this in the future.
Coach sits a bit taller as he answers. “Those teams are within their rights to choose who they play and when, if they want to forfeit that’s their choice, we’ll take the win.”
Another reporter stands with a question. “Stephen, does it not make you nervous that you’ll be playing such a physical game with people who might believe that gay men, or bisexual or pansexual men, don’t belong in this sport?”
All eyes turn to me, and something inside me clicks. All of the questions, their thoughts, they’re all fear based, and I’m done being scared.
“Not really,” I say, “a tackle is a tackle in football, if they want to try a bit harder to get the ball from me they can bring it on.” A few of the reporters chuckle at that, so I continue.
“Look, in an ideal world, I wouldn’t have to hold a press conference about the fact that I’m in love with someone, and my team wouldn’t have to make an official statement saying that they support me.
“But the world we live in isn’t perfect. It’s a privilege to be able to sit here today and openly say that I have a boyfriend,when there are still so many people in the LGBTQ+ community that have to hide who they are, for fear of losing their lives, their jobs, or being ostracized by the people around them, all because of who they love, their gender, or how they identify.
“When it comes to how we’ll deal with other teams who don’t want to play us because I’m here, or players who want to take me out because of who I love, honestly, it sounds like a ‘them’ problem, and they need to get over it. LGBTQ+ athletes are here, we’ve always been here, and the world needs to catch up with us, because we’re ready to play. If people don’t like it, they’re the ones narrowing their world, they’re the ones missing out, it’s their loss, not ours.
“I just want to play football, and I want my family, my friends, and my boyfriend in the crowd to watch me, and cheer me on while I do. I’m not hurting anyone, and I hope that everyone can see that and understand.”
Applause erupts from the members of staff at the back of the room, and it ripples through the reporters, all the way up to Coach Matthews, Ted, and Marcus beside me.
“And I think that is the perfect place to wrap this up,” Coach says. “We’ll see you all next week for the game!”
As soon as the reporters have left the room, Donovan is in my arms, telling me how proud he is, and how amazingly I did. I don’t even remember what I said, I just know it felt right.
“Without a doubt, the scariest thing I’ve ever done,” I say, leaning my head on his while he hugs me.
“But you did it, and you were incredible,” he says.
“Donovan’s right, you were incredible,” Mindy says, walking over to us. “And we’re not the only ones who think so. You’re trending, Stephen, and it’s overwhelminglypositive. Look at our follower count.”
She holds up her phone and the Warriors social media page, the follower number literally increasing in real time. Her notifications are moving so fast I can’t take them in, but I catch glimpses of the pride flag emoji, hearts, and smiley faces.
“Wow,” I murmur, “we did that?”
“You did that,” she says, squeezing my arm. “Right, I’m going to go and lock myself in a room and respond to all of this.”
“Will you be okay?” Donovan asks. “That’s a lot of messages.”
“Please,” she smirks, “I live for this shit; I’ve got this. You go and enjoy your evening, celebrate!”
“We will,” I chuckle, “but I promised Donovan a tour first; he doesn’t believe me that the players have scented candles in the meeting rooms.”
Mindy laughs and hugs us both goodbye, before Marcus takes her place.
“You did it, bro!” He pulls me into a hug, before hugging Donovan too.
“I couldn’t have done it without you; you saved me up there. Thank you.”
“No thanks needed, you know I’ve got your back. Anyway, I’m gonna head home, enjoy the peace and quiet before you move in tomorrow.” He nudges Donovan and winks. “Are we gonna need to set up some kind of signal, in case you two are getting busy in the communal areas?”
Donovan practically chokes on the bottle of water he’s taking a sip from, and I chuckle. “No communal area stuff, I promise, we’ll keep it to my room.”
Marcus laughs and slaps me on the shoulder. “You say that now, just let me know if it changes.”
Donovan stays quiet as we say goodbye, just nodding and holding onto me.
