Michael Sam has had quite the journey to fame over the past two years ever since he came out and became the first openly gay player to be drafted in the NFL. Since his historic drafting, Sam’s NFL dreams haven’t worked out well as he was cut by the St. Louis Rams and waived from the Dallas Cowboys’ practice team. However, Sam hasn’t fallen into obscurity as his time on “Dancing With The Stars” and the impact of his coming out story have kept him relevant in the eyes of fans around the globe. And Sam recently opened up about his game-changing coming out experience and what life has been like as an openly gay Black man.
According to media reports, Sam spoke about his 2014 decision to come out of the closet right before the NFL Draft and explained that he honestly wasn’t thinking about being anyone’s advocate or champion. He just wanted to be free from the closet.
“I was so naive when I came out. I wasn’t thinking about anybody else trying to be an inspiration or advocate or activist, whatever, I wasn’t trying to be anything but just to get that over with so I could stop focusing on me,” Sam said.
Despite his initial thoughts, Sam explained that his story, as we all know, ended up helping countless people.
He said, “It was amazing. There was a friend who told me to give his cousin a call – she had tried to commit suicide twice. After she heard my story she promised herself she would never do it. People kill themselves because they can’t handle the pressure and that stress. It’s very sad. If by me living my life, I can save someone, I would do it again.”
However, things haven’t been all great now that Sam is out. One challenge Sam says he does face is the racism that plagues the gay community.
“It’s terrible. People have told me I’m not gay enough, people have told me I’m not Black enough. I don’t know what that means. You want to be accepted by other people but you don’t even accept someone just because of the color of their skin? I just don’t understand that at all. How are you saying that, ‘oh, I want people to accept me because I’m gay but I don’t accept you because you’re Black, or because you’re white or because you’re Asian’,” Sam said.
And although many people throughout the years have spoken about how homophobic the Black community is, Sam gives a different take on the matter, saying that he feels the Black community is more accepting of the LGBT community than the world thinks.
“I can only go by my experience and the people I’ve been around. I think it’s more accepting, actually. There are a lot of Black, openly gay people. A lot of people have [gay] friends, cousins, brothers, sisters… They have at least one openly gay person, at least it’s more accepting, that’s my experience. People tell me they have family members who are gay and it doesn’t freak them out and no Black person ever freaked out at me, ‘Oh you’re gay.’ None. There are people who are over religious who go, ‘Oh, you’re a fag, you’re going to hell.’ That’s everywhere. Ted Cruz is pretty much anti-gay,” Sam explained.
