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This profile is part of Queerty’s 2021 Out For Good series, recognizing public figures who’ve had the courage to come out and make a difference in the past year, in celebration of National Coming Out Day on October 11.
Name: Bryan Ruby, 25
Bio: On his website, Ruby describes himself as “a Pennsylvania-born, Nashville-based professional baseball payer who doubles as a country songwriter.”
After playing baseball for Vassar College, Ruby took his athletic career international, with stints in Austria, Chile, Germany, Guatemala, Peru, and Switzerland, according to USA Today. And earlier this year, he joined the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, a Mavericks Independent Baseball League team that was formerly a minor-league affiliate of the San Francisco Giants.
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Along the way, Ruby continued his music career, and his journey as a gay country singer-songwriter is the focus of the upcoming documentary Out in Nashville.
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Coming out: Ruby came out as a gay in September, becoming the only publicly out baseball pro in active play. “Each time somebody comes out in industries where queer people have not been historically represented in the mainstream, it helps to crumble the myth that you can’t be yourself,” Ruby told USA Today at the time. “But we’re in the 2020s. It’s about damn time for this. If I can help just one person from this, then that’s greater than any single hit or home run or win that I ever get on the field.”
Chosen family: A week after his coming-out, Ruby posted on Instagram to thank his Volcanoes teammates and colleagues, his fans, his fellow Oregonians, and everyone else who has supported his journey. “I have never felt so much love as I have over the last week,” he wrote, explaining that he had been inspired by the messages he had received from people around the world.
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“Not just American baseball or country music fans, but people from India, Africa, the Dominican Republic, Europe, you name it. Teenagers. Adults. Senior citizens. People I’ve never met writing me paragraphs and paragraphs of support,” he added. “It’s been such an honor being accepted so lovingly into the LGBTQ+ community, and I promise to do whatever I can to in turn help the country music and baseball worlds grow more accepting of us.”
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Terrycloth
I knew as soon as I saw him with guitar , before I played it. I knew it would be country song…