For Jaden Vazquez, coming out was just the beginning.
As a star linebacker for Fordham University’s football team, Velazquez came out as bisexual last fall–quite literally, in fact. He posted a video of himself coming out of his bedroom closet to Instagram in October, coinciding with National Coming Out Month.
“As you can see it’s not easy for me to come out of the closet but here it is! 😂😂😂,” he said in the video post. “Im bisexual and im proud of who I am. Thank you to everyone who has ever supported me. I’ve struggled my entire life with self-identity and I have finally found the strength to come out. Hope you enjoy the video 😂😂😂.”
Even better, the video post prompted friends, coaches and teammates to accept him as queer with open arms. “I’ve been pretty surprised to have zero negative reactions,” Vazquez told Outsports. “A lot of people do get negative reactions when they come out, and that’s one thing I’m very fortunate about. My family is very open and loving and supporting, and my teammates are very open.”
“I called him that night and said it was a very brave thing you did,” Vazquez’s coach, Joe Conlin, tells News 12. “We’re here to support you in any way shape or form…It was no big deal because it’s not a big deal. It’s who he is.”
Now Vazquez has parlayed that good feeling into a positive force for all LGBTQ people. This fall, he’s establishing a new position for Fordham’s student-athlete organization, Fordham Connect: the group’s first LGBTQ executive. Fordham Connect’s purpose is to erase mental health stigma in sports.
“I hope that I inspire other athletes–younger than me, older than me–are able to see themselves through me and say ‘Hey, this is someone that’s doing this.’ If I’d seen someone like that, I definitely would have felt more comfortable as myself earlier on.”
“We’re trying to have a safe space to talk about those things,” Vazquez added to Outsports. “We know these are topics that are not really brought up in sports, because there’s this idea that you just play a sport. But the athletes are more than just athletes.”
Now a junior, Vazquez will hold his role as LGBTQ Executive with Fordham Connect for the next two years. Well done, Jaden.
Chrisk
Good for him but 95% of us also came out as bi-sexual. Just saying.
amanwithanedge
true.
Kangol2
Wait, didn’t Queerty run another article basically the same thing as this one? With more photos, particularly with him and his teammates and friends, including many supportive Black and Latinx players?
JAW
Pretty offensive that queerty mislabeled him as a queer. Nowhere in the Out Sports article, or in his Twitter or Insta accounts did I see him say that he is a queer
He came out at Bi… not a queer. It is tough enough to come out as LGBT no need for a website to make it tougher.
queers were added to the LGBT umbrella, they did not take it over
vinnieboiblue
The point is whether queer or bi, people do suffer the consequences of coming out. One cannot expect to receive respect if one is biased against someone bisexual and coming to terms with it. The stigma attached is there be it gay or bi. Queerty is all of that, lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer.
Res1
This might be controversial but I’m going to say it. LGBT members like him should be protected. Why? Because they’re straight perceived and stereotypes are put on them early for fitting social norms. When it is obvious that one is gay, it is understood; however, when it isn’t obvious, then it becomes HOW are you gay? I think there’s a certain amount of pressure put on boys who are straight perceived from a very young age especially when they are attractive. They grow up expected to have a boatload of girlfriends and that’s why many of them stay closeted and end up marrying women.
Jussie_Racist_Clown
I don’t care what he is, gay, bi, queer. Just sit on my face bb.
michael_totzke
Oh you … 😉
michael_totzke
Why must people be so damn cynical? This is one person: his story. And it’s a big deal. Take it for what it is. Jeez.
michael_totzke
Go, Jaden!
russellhm
The university where Donald Trump spent his first year or two of college before his brother found a way to get him into Wharton—his academic record and low IQ had nothing to do with it.
Thad
Bethlehem? Maybe I hate the Lehigh Valley a little less now.
Coruna2018
ChrisK:
Go right ahead and be dismissive of bisexuals and try to erase their identity. Just because you and others you know might’ve only felt comfortable using the term “bisexual” when you were coming to terms with your sexuality doesn’t mean that true male bisexuality doesn’t exist. It exists much more than you realize. If you’re white, you don’t deny the existence of black people, just because you’re white, right? In the same way, because you’re gay, you don’t know what it’s like to be bisexual. So, stop with the dismissal and erasure of bisexuals and anyone else not strictly gay.
Donston
Honestly, I find it all fairly tiresome and passé at this point. The obsession with identity, shaming others for their identities, ignorance when it comes to understanding fluidity or gender or the romantic, sexual, emotional, relationship spectrum, and the whining about not being accepted or understood- it’s all gotten boring at this point. However, a deeper conversation focused on hetero and masculine privileges and pressures, homo shaming and gay insecurities needs to be had. Most “proudly bi” guys aren’t interested in indulging that conversation though. And that ends up making the majority very easy to be dismissive or condescending towards, which is unfortunate. But if we weren’t so hyper focused on identity politics and sociology this kinda stuff wouldn’t even be much of an issue.
Cam
@Donston
Not focusing on “Labels” is exactly what the right wing would love. If we don’t label ourselves as we want to be, then they can basically continue to claim we don’t exist.
And one thing I noticed from the “No labels” crowd. The one label they didn’t seem to complain about was when people were trying to say they were “Heteroflexible”. So the “Labels are evil” crowd had zero problems as long as the word “Hetero” was in it.
Trans people have different issues from Bi people, Lesbians have different issues from intersex people, and gay people have different issues from asexuals.
All of us are subject to bigotry and groups attacking our civil rights. So as long as we are fighting that enemy I would never tell a trans person, a lesbian, a bisexual etc. that who they are is irrelevant.
Example. Right now, Trans people are being blocked from serving in the military, but Gay, Lesbian, or Bi people still can for the moment. So the right wing is absolutely labeling them and attacking them whether they self identify or not and if they don’t identify, then there is no way to fight for laws protecting them.
My 2 cents.
Donston
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. And there are drawbacks to every approach. The problem is many of the same people who hyper focus on identity are the same ones who try to shame people out of the closet or shame the identities someone else embraces or shame others people’s lifestyles or are dismissive towards others’ individual struggles or are completely ignorant when it comes to other people’s sexuality or the gender, sexual, romantic, emotional, relationship spectrum. And you’re on that list of who are like that. There’s too much nonsense, manipulation, ego testing and politicking within the “queer community” for me to care that much about someone’s identity. And it really doesn’t mean as much as some people think. You can live your life freely, openly and honesty and be full of “pride” without constantly pushing identity politics. Y’all always talk about something being what the “right wing” wants, but really, the constant pushing of identity politics is more about insecurities and control and wanting order than it’s about anything else.