game ready

Byron Perkins, the history-making out gay college football player, is training for his best season yet

By · Updated on August 9, 2023
Byron Perkins

It’s been a monumental summer for Byron Perkins. The out college football star enjoyed his first Pride Month as an out gay man, revealing his boyfriend in the process.

But now, after enjoying his gay revelry, it’s time for Perkins to get back to work. The first out gay football player in HBCU history returns to the field this week, and is determined to make his senior season a success.

“We don’t just play to win,” he posted Tuesday on Instagram. “We play for the memories too.”

The accompanying photo dump features Perkins enjoying time with his teammates throughout the years. It’s clear that his football life has been building towards this moment.

Perkins publicly came out as gay last October, saying he could no longer live inauthentically. He was in a dark place and as he phrases it, needed to “destroy his mask.”

“I have been told on many occasions that I walk around a look as if I’m upset,” he wrote on his coming-out story. “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.”

In a recent ESPN interview, Perkins elaborated on his phrasing. The Hampton defensive back said his secret was bringing him down on and off the field.

“I felt as if I was constricting myself,” he said. “I felt as if I wasn’t able to be free and because I wasn’t able to be free, it was condemning who I wanted to be. It was condemning the football player. It was condemning even the person. Ultimately, I had to make the decision as to whether or not I was going to keep embodying my mask, or whether or not I was going to embody myself.

“So I made the ultimate decision of making sure I embody myself, instead of trying to live up to the expectations of what society and what other people have of me. I decided to focus on what I wanted out of my own life.”

Perkins knew he needed to come out if he was going to live up to his potential.

“A happy person equals a happy player,” he said, quoting out WNBA player Natasha Cloud. “In order for me to be a better football player, I understood I had to understand myself, and I had to exercise being who I was authentically. My play wouldn’t get any better if I didn’t do that.”

As a closeted person, Perkins was living another life besides his own. He knows how painful that can be, and doesn’t want other young Black athletes put in the same position.

“Especially at an HBCU, young Black gay men need an outlet,” he told Outsports. “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.”

Perkins is doing that, one appearance at a time. Earlier this summer, he starred in a CBS Sports documentary, Beyond the Limits.

“I don’t deserve to suffer anymore,” he said. “I don’t deserve to chain myself to the ideas of society, and consider myself invaluable, because someone else said so. No.”

It’s apparent that Perkins enjoys being unshackled. He and his partner, “JD” Dunn, are grid official!

On ESPN, Perkins said he decided to publicize his relationship, because life is valuable.

“What made it the right time was, understanding life is precious, and at any given moment it could be gone,” he said. “Therefore, I didn’t want to waste time.”

Now on the cusp of his senior campaign, Perkins is no longer wasting time. It promises to be his best season yet.

Scroll down for more shots of Perkins enjoying his beautiful and authentic life…

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