Baseball player Solomon Bates comes out as gay: ‘I want to open doors’
Baseball player Solomon Bates has come out as gay and shared that he hopes to “open up doors” for other LGBTQ+ athletes. The statement came after it was confirmed that Bates had been released by his team, the Giants. “Being gay in this sport you don’t know what comes at you!
I thank the giants for giving me the opportunity to be myself and go out there and play the game that I love the most,” he wrote on Instagram on 9 August. “I’m still in shock on what just happened.
But I’m not giving up on what I want to do.” He becomes the second Minor League baseball player to publicly come out as gay after David Denson did so seven years ago.
Bates explained that he is “not giving up on what I want to do” and is “still going to open up doors for gay athletes like me.” The 25-year-old continued: “I’m leaving on my terms and my terms only. “Gay men can play a manly sport if you give us a chance to.
