Jason Howard Green

Jason Howard Green

Friday, February 5, 2021

Celebrate Black Queer Voices: Feb 5 - Glenn Burke

 


I've been sharing the story of Glenn Burke for years.  He was the first openly gay major league athlete to come out as gay.  Long before the NBA had Jason Collins and long before the NFL had Michael Sams, there was Glenn Burke.  Glen Burke played Major League Baseball from 1976 through 1979.  He would play for the L.A. Dodgers and for the Oakland As, and his story is one of legend. He was an out gay man and his teammates knew it and his coach knew it.  That's not to say that everyone was comfortable with it, but he was a man living his truth. 

For the longest time the documentary that told his story was unavailable.  And trust, I've been searching.  I ever did the research to determine who was the producer of the film, and emailed that individual asking if I would be able to get a copy.  I never stopped searching.  And then suddenly,  I found where it had been uploaded to Vimeo.

I encourage everyone to check out this story.  It's pretty incredible and you can see it below:


OUT: The Glenn Burke Story from Elevate Media on Vimeo.

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