Rick Welts: Phoenix Suns President Should Be Praised for Continuing Conversation

Rick Welts Announces He's Gay to Newspaper

Phoenix Suns president and CEO Rick Welts just came out and announced that he was gay, according to the New York Times. 

Welts, believed to be the first man in a prominent position in sports to declare his homosexuality, met with friends, associates and a newspaper reporter in an effort to transcend the boundaries set forth in professional sports. 

Via ESPN: 

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"This is one of the last industries where the subject is off limits," Welts told the newspaper. "Nobody's comfortable in engaging in a conversation." 

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And you can't say that isn't true. 

Sports have always had that machismo quality and that frat-house mentality outside the game. It is deeply ingrained in sports culture much in the same way as it is in, say, the military, where homosexuality is mistaken for weakness. 

Welts should be commended for bringing it to the forefront because it is something we forget about  in sports from time to time—how closed-minded they can be. 

Homosexuality in sports may never be widely accepted, but if we can just get to the point where it isn't looked at in disgust or simply ignored, that would be a win. 

People like Welts need to bring the topic out into the open because it lies dormant if they don't, and as apathy sets in, so does ignorance.  

Tolerance will always be a battle for the homosexual community, particularly in such realms as sports, but the more we continue the conversation, the more we pave the way toward acceptance.  

That is really all Welts is asking for. To be accepted as one of the NBA's own.