Jason Burch, a former Minor League baseball player, has come out as gay.
Burch played in the Minors for four different MLB franchises from 2003-2008. He played in college for Nebraska. He was gay the whole time, telling teammates when they asked. Looking back, he wishes he had come out more publicly while playing, he told Outsports in an interview.
He said: “Anyone who has played with me and has been in the bullpen with me knows I’m not afraid to talk about sex or gay rights or feminism or anything that some people might consider academic. I was interested in seeing how they handled it and what they thought about it.”
Burch added, “Looking back, I wish I had told the whole world that I’m gay from day one. That feeling of being relied upon, that people must turn to you as a closer to make things right, to have that role – and to have people have that feeling about me in that role – as a gay man, I think that would have been a powerful message. If we are talking about changing people’s opinions, I do think that would have been a powerful message. But I wasn’t really thinking about that at the time.”
